The Road Not Taken
by FengLi
Summary: "When love is real, it finds a way." If only that had happened before it was too late. In a different world, the way contorted and twisted until it came to a dead end, leaving only bitter, empty husks falling apart into dust in its wake. Post-War "What if it ended in Zutara" AU starting from Sozin's Comet: Avatar Aang. Rated T, multi-chaptered.
1. Prologue

A/N. This will be dark (as much as I can make it while staying in character), with lots of angst, inner reflection and soothing tea, the latter two of which are served daily at daybreak by Iroh. This is an experiment for me in writing the Zuko x Katara pairing in a way that _isn't _a parody, so updates will be rather slow at first.

**Prologue**

The Avatar stood under a star-like canopy of paper lanterns that seemed to float in the air, their thin gossamer strings nearly invisible in the haze of their collective glow. To his side, the young Firelord, bedecked from head to toe in a handsome crimson robe, held aloft a giant scroll filled to the brim with the innumerable vows that characterized Fire Nation weddings, those of nobility more so than most. After a moment, the Firelord finished reading and nodded with a sly, knowing grin to the Avatar, who could barely contain his excitement despite his outwards stoic appearance.

Across from the Avatar, a woman with an imperceptible smile and a silk veil covering her delicate features stood with her head tilted slightly down, a nervous excitement visible only to a few dancing across her eyes as her husband gently pulled the veil over her head.

To the side and behind a cluster of foreign dignitaries, Roku began to answer Aang's bewildered question.

"Ta Min," Roku clarified, a slight shift in his voice belying the knot of emotions underneath. "I was persistent. When love is real, it finds a way."

Aang didn't, _couldn't _respond to that. His own doubts and inhibitions seemed to pale in comparison to the weight of Roku's confidence. _How can he be so sure? _

After a short pause, Roku then encouraged the young airbender with a rather absentminded comment added more as an afterthought than anything else. "And being the Avatar doesn't hurt your chances with the ladies either."

**_One Year Later_**

Taking the place of the Avatar in his vision, Aang stood before the gathered crowd of assembled wedding guests and the hubbub of conversation emanating from them, all while keeping a now well-practiced smile etched onto his lips. Everything seemed to be as Roku had shown him, from the rows and rows of attendees to the fragrant incense burning in the urns scattered about the room, and, most importantly, the floating lanterns. _Those _were absolutely essential for the success of the entire endeavor.

Bewilderingly, with all of the preparations completed and the conversation beginning to die down, the Avatar only sighed deeply instead of showing even a single iota of joy.

If anyone had heard it they would've thought the gesture rude and inconsiderate, but the Avatar concealed his unhappiness with an old airbending trick. He couldn't let anyone know his true feelings about the matter, or else it might wind up like the last wedding the Avatar and the Firelord had attended together so many years ago.

He hadn't asked to do this but he knew he couldn't refuse. Not when it was his duty.

Duty, the persistently meddlesome force in his life that pushed and pulled him like the girl he couldn't help but love, treasure every moment with, and spend countless hours dreaming fondly about...

Correction, _loved_.

Some things would have to end if he was to keep his sanity.

Personally, it was a miracle far greater than his defeat of Ozai that he had arrived at this point without completely losing both his mental _and_ airbending marbles or lashing out in unrestrained anger, but now the familiar, long-suppressed tendrils of a dozen bitter emotions were latching onto his unshakable affection for her that he knew existed, still unbroken by the ordeals and tests of the past year, in the deepest recesses of his soul.

He had certainly tried his best to move on, but every moment that _might've _been something else was instead marred by memories of her musical laughter or her gentle smile or some other of the uncountable tidbits of her that he held dear, and whatever he had been doing would invariably be relegated to the back of his mind as he wildly, _futilely_ longed for what could never be and desperately clung to the hope that there was still time for everything to change.

In between the fits of heartache when he had some semblance of lucidity, he had examined himself to see if his feelings had diminished even minutely, only to come to the same depressing conclusion.

Even if he was miserable almost all the time, he knew he should've been happy for her.

Instead however, Aang wanted to drop his forced euphoria at the historic symbolism of the occasion. For well over a century, the Avatar had been conspicuously absent from the weddings of successive generations of the Fire Nation royal family starting from Azulon down to Ozai.

Now that the chance was presented to him he didn't actually want any part of it.

Truth be told, he was feeling every bit of his age as he stood there in front of the row of Fire Sages. He _still_ had literally nothing in this world besides himself, Appa and a ransack collection of clothes and personal items that could fit in the smallest rice sack of a drought-stricken village's afternoon market.

And all he wanted to run away from what little he did have.

Aang knew what had happened the first time he had run away from his life, and now, he knew, he was paying the price for his absence. All the anguish and pain he _should've _been feeling while he had been mercifully, unconsciously frozen would now be repaid in full, with _interest, _over the remaining span of his life, each agonizing moment of pain a lesson in regret and shame.

Needless to say, he felt that he had no real reason to stick around any longer, and he had eagerly imagined the bliss and peace that escape would bring, whatever the consequences.

But hie knew he could never do it. He felt disgusted for even considering it.

The world still needed him.

_They _still needed them.

But who were _they? _

What he had thought of as friendship had unceremoniously dissolved into an unending pity parade, replete with blaringly untrue and insultingly false reassurances, not to mention the ubiquitous comfort hug and reassuring pat on the back. Gone were the people he thought he knew; or perhaps he had never known them at all. Everyone had always said that he was too young and naive to comprehend the reality of war...and love.

Now everyone and everything was moving on even as he clung desperately to his hope as the last refuge to find a semblance of purpose and grounding, not caring whether it was real or imagined.

However, such thoughts invariably led down the depthless well of self-pity that had swallowed him whole, bones and all, on more than one occasion, and it would soon be time to address the betrothed couple as they ascended the pedestal. He hadn't figured that part out yet when the groom stepped to the left of the stage and promptly swiveled to face the empty spot opposite him.

Aang ignored the anxious expression on Zuko's face and bowed respectfully, his gesture full of the formality that was already starting to set in before the wedding had even truly began.

"Firelord Zuko." Aang tilted his head downwards and bowed slightly.

"Aang." Zuko nodded, his voice surprisingly quiet and somber.

Zuko at least had a convenient title, one that Aang had already gotten used to. Now would be as good a time as any to start with Katara, who had just stepped onto the platform across from Zuko.

Aang mentally corrected himself before continuing, smothering his grimace with a painfully transparent smile. He turned towards the bride.

To say she looked radiant would be a horrendous understatement. Even against a backdrop of a thousand glowing lanterns, she positively _glowed _like the full moon on a cloudless night. Her eyes were absurdly captivating in a way that he had never quite gotten used to, even after two years.

Aang gulped and shut his eyes, bowing slightly so he could crack them open a pitiful smidgen to look at the ornate tiling beneath his feet.

_"Lady_ Katara_."_

Katara frowned at that.

"You know you can just call me Ka-"

Aang looked away sharply, trying not to create a scene but unwilling to show any of the affection he still felt for her.

"Don't," he warned softly, but there was an underlying edge to his voice that Katara recognized immediately. She gave up and turned back toward Zuko, who seemed to be brooding deeply in his own thoughts, especially given an occasion as joyous and carefree as a wedding. After a moment he looked up and smiled reassuringly at her.

The rest of the wedding passed by in a hazy blur. After his greeting, Aang moved back and allowed the Fire Sages to take over. Never before had he been so grateful for their presence, for it allowed him time to think through his next decision carefully.

It would be merely another small sacrifice on his part for the good of the world, and the first one that he was more than willing to give. At least that was what he kept telling himself.

He felt like he had already lost everything he had ever cared about. Granted, seeing her married off to another man didn't mean that she was _lost_ to him. His love for his people, Gyatso most of all, had transcended their deaths, even if their spirits had been carried off by the winds to some other place.

It was completely different, however, when the subject of one's attentions was present but withheld the type of love that was sought. Love unrequited can only last for so long; even the brightest flame cannot burn forever if it is left unfueled.

Ironically, when presented with the choice more than a year ago, he had chosen to risk death rather than let go of her. It was truly amazing in a grim and terrifying way how quickly some things could change.

* * *

Soon it was time for the final part of the wedding ceremony, the one small part that had been omitted for over a hundred years. Aang stepped forward past the line of Fire Sages to perform it.

As he looked down and began reciting a rather verbose rendition of the Blessing of the Spirits with his palms pressed together, his gaze met _hers _as she looked up for some undecipherable reason, and he couldn't help but think back nostalgically to a time when the future had seemed impossibly bright and hopeful, before everything between them had begun to unravel.

_"I know sometimes it hurts more to hope and it hurts more to care, but you have to promise me that you won't stop caring."_

It was at that moment that he knew he had to let go of her forever. It hurt too, too much to care.

A single, silvery tear escaped his downcast eyes, reflecting in its deceptively tranquil sheen a bottomless sea of sorrow that had frozen him in ice a century ago and would do so again...forever.


	2. Two Strikes

**A/N: Sorry about the infrequent updates, but I really don't want to rush into this story. This chapter is actual an agglomeration of a few shorter passages. **

**Disclaimer: I don't A:TLA; it belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nickelodeon. **

**Billowing Dust**

With a blinding flash and the crackle of arcing lightning, the world turned black.

He thought it would've been on a bed of some sort or a mighty battlefield, meaningful in some way at least. Never had he imagined that it would be on the sole, dusty road cutting through a decrepit slum town in the middle of nowhere by his own niece.

His death.

He should've died at Ba Sing Se with his son, died in payment a hundred times for his sins committed in the name of Honor and The Firelord and the Fire Nation and a hundred other now-faceless entities.

That would've been a memorable end.

He should've died in the Spirit World when he came barging through demanding to see his nephew. Then he could've been together, reunited in death if not life.

He should've died when he came back to confront his brother over the sudden death of his father and disappearance of his sister-in-law and the sudden change in his niece and nephew.

The thoughts running through his head starved his blood of oxygen, and he strained his diaphragm, trying to draw in a breath that had stubbornly refused to enter his throat. Instead he was rewarded with pain, a pain that seemed to writhe and pulsate by itself, twisting his helpless body along with it and dragging it over the pinpricks and needles of burnt nerve endings.

As suddenly as it had come, the pain began to fade into a dull ache and then a mere numbness.

It was true, then, that death was a sweet slumber.

He thought he had mere moments left when he heard the faint pattern of a word being rammed down his ear.

"Uncle!"

Instinctively, he cracked open an eye, parting the darkness as if it were only a curtain hiding the truth behind it.

Zuko.

Sudden strength flooded into him much like alcohol fills the veins with fire. He braced himself and pushed past the pain to take a breath...then again, and again. At the thought of his nephew, he felt a sudden influx of energy like he had never felt before.

Their years together and their years to come inundated him from all sides, their power pulling and pushing him upwards as he gathered ever-greater strength and re-emerged fully conscious from his near-death experience.

Perhaps it was because he had never been so close to death before, but he could feel his heart beating stronger at that moment than it had at any other moment of his life. Soon he could open his mouth to talk, but no words except one came out.

"Zuko."

His heart, so weak only moments ago, seemed to strain with unbridled affection as indescribable, unfathomably deep affection swelled powerfully within him. Even if his nephew chose to hide it most of the time, he knew that his love for him had taken root and blossomed into something mutual and profound.

No matter what, he loved his nephew, and his nephew loved him. Together, they could face the darkness and emerge together intact.

No matter what, they would be together in this life and the next.

**Waking up**

He didn't know when he first heard her footsteps after that disastrous night. It probably had taken several weeks for his ruptured eardrums to heal. They weren't _nearly _as obvious as the gaping wound on his back.

For countless hours, he simply laid there in the best room on the ship, as if he were some slowly passing leader of a forgotten army. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting better and he couldn't even find the energy to open his eyes.

It wasn't the pain or even the knot of blocked energy distorting his chi paths.

He felt tired, as if he were constantly fighting to stay alive and if he was lucky, conscious. The excitable energy that he had once had was gone, blasted to crystal shards by the fatal lightning in the luminescent catacombs beneath the Earth Kingdom capital.

Few, if any thoughts flit through his mind for most of the time. When he had the merest inkling of consciousness, all he could think of was his failure.

His failure in protecting his people from the wrath of the Fire Nation so many years ago - although it seemed like it had been a few months since he had last baked fruit pies with Gyatso or played airball with his airbending friends or raced Appa around the wind-swept spires of the Southern Air Temple.

All turned to bones and dust and ruins.

His failures and near-failures, disasters averted only by the actions of his friends. But when his friends had needed him most, he had failed them.

A thousand mistakes, a hundred thousand lives and uncountable mistakes all weighing down on his young shoulders, crushing and incinerating him into dust and ashes beneath the soles of iron-tipped boots and the flames billowing forth from clenched fists.

Now, another failure to add to an endless list.

* * *

Every day, Katara would bring some soup or porridge, never solid food or anything with meat, to his bedside and slowly ladle it into his unresponsive mouth with a small wooden spoon. After he had swallowed what he could, she would flip him over onto his stomach and peel away the tattered remains of his robes to expose the twisted flesh beneath.

A wooden bowl filled with boiled rainwater emerged from behind the cupboard, carried by delicate, shaking fingers and callused palms to be set down on the nightstand. Slowly, she would pull twin tendrils of water with her hands and bring them together right above the wound on his upper back, letting the water run through the burnt skin and torn tissues as a healing balm.

She managed to unblock his chi paths, allowing him to bend...if he only had the energy to do so. As it was, she hadn't even seen him open his eyes yet.

She never spoke.

Day after day, she repeated the same silent routine, but despite her attempts to stay optimistic and upbeat, she became increasingly desperate, frantic even. She didn't know what she was doing half ot the time so she was forced to rely on her instincts; Remembering her scattering of lessons in the North Pole, she wondered if she should've spent more time learning how to heal.

That was only the least of her guilt..

She had almost _carelessly_ thrown away his lifeline in the form of a Spirit Water pendant to the enemy..._Zuko_. He had somehow finagled his way past her seemingly impenetrable defenses and instilled a sense of pity, of all things, in the usually unsympathetic waterbender.

The life of her best friend and the Savior of the World and her everything for a cosmetic, literally skin-deep treatment of the Prince who hadn't batted an eyelash at helping to kill Aang.

All her best efforts in healing him had been self-rationalized as being the _least_ she could do, and the guilt only continued to gnaw and fester within the deepest recesses of her conscience.

Consumed by guilt, two broken souls stumbled in the dark, a darkness unbroken by the oil lamps dotting the walls or the dancing flames of lit candles.

* * *

On the fourth week, with nobody nearby, Katara finally spoke and dared to share her deepest secret.

"Aang, if you can hear me..." she leaned in closer and her voice dropped to a breathy whisper, "I love you."

She didn't know when or how it had happened, but Aang had found a place in her heart equal with, if not outright surpassing, that of her real family. It was a scary and thrilling feeling that she felt something so strongly for someone who had been a total stranger less than a year ago.

Now however, it was mostly scary, as the feeling of actually losing him was still fresh in her mind...and probably would be for a long time.

She sent a lingering gaze at his soft hair that had sprouted up during the preceding weeks, but when there was no reaction to her confession she sighed and began to clean up the empty soup bowl and bend away the water dripping down his back. After one last glance back into the dank room, she closed the door softly and made her way up to the deck to face the swirling storm clouds and relentless wind.

* * *

Aang's mind lurched slightly when Katara withdrew the tingling water completely out of his back. It always did and he had almost gotten used to it, especially with his amorphous unconsciousness as a barrier to the sharp pain.

Despite sleeping for several weeks, _straight_, he wasn't even aware of his own breathing or the push of the mattress against his skin. The only thing he was aware of was the ringing sound of blood rushing through his ears, something that only got marginally better with each passing day. His extreme fatigue, however, remained the same despite the constant healing. It was as if he was only the empty shell of a body and mind, barely alive by the miracle of the spirit water.

The problem, as always, was his energy. It was all gone. His body had healed remarkably, but his mind was elsewhere, not wholly in this world but rather halfway to the next. The energy to sustain it here had already left this world.

Thus, his spark of consciousness began to flicker once more, its fuel already beginning to run dry after mere moments of a tentative lucidity.

But something different happened this time.

"_I love you." _

The voice that said them mattered as much as the words themselves, but together they became more than a sum of their parts. In his mind, the haze seemed to dissolve in a sudden burst of warm light that startled his mind into having its first conscious thought in almost a month. His first mental image conjured at the thought of _love_ happened to be Katara, and from there the light intensified and grew even brighter.

He was almost overwhelmed by the sudden ache and the deluge of emotions that when he recalled his memories of his time spent with her, which spanned only a few short months but seemingly stretched into the endless horizon.

Walking the beaten-dirt paths that meandered through the river valleys that so often dotted the Earth Kingdom, occasionally finding a nice-looking flower or a scenic view that she might appreciate.

Hiking through the temperate forests along the coastline, laughing as they foraged in the brush for something better than a rock-shaped nut.

Silent against the bleakness of the Si Wong desert and its ubiquitous dust storms, shuffling tiredly along during the relative cool under the midnight moon.

But together despite the odds.

And now she was reaching out for him once again. How could he not return her gesture? Their connection easily transcended the distance between this world and the one he had been drawn towards.

Thoughts of Katara replaced the dreams of his guardian, Gyatso, his long-dead friends and his destroyed nation that seemed to beckon from beyond the veil of death. Before, the love he had felt _for_ them had sustained him in his his halfway point between the two different worlds they now occupied, but with Katara he had something that kept him firmly grounded in this world.

_Someone _in this world who he could hold dear and rely on.

The love _of_ his people for him had not left the world, even if they _had_. The Guru had been right.

It was at that moment that he finally let go of _them _and allowed himself to believe that Katara might love him the same way he loved her. This chance, however small it may have seemed, put his mind at ease. Gyatso and his people were gone, but she wasn't. That alone was enough for him to stay.

He fell into a brief slumber as his mind prepared itself to re-emerge into this world for the first time in a month.

Finally at peace, Aang woke up the next day with no recollection of his rambling thoughts.

* * *

**Something sweet before this story dives off the deep end.**


	3. Strike Three

**A/N: I know, it's a short chapter. Bear with me as the setup will take quite a while. **  
**Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA, which belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nickelodeon. **

**Strike Three**

In retrospect at least, it should've been blindingly obvious what Azula had been planning. That _smirk_, the lips curling slightly upwards as if daring her brother to answer her challenge, the slightly off-balance posture, the malicious, gleaming eyes darting to the waterbender besides him...

Like a coiled spring, she lunged forward and released her lightning, her third fatal strike flying straight for her until someone else took it for her.

Again Katara felt the familiar twinge of guilt. Yet another sacrifice for her.

* * *

She didn't even have time to react, to scream his name or to stop him. But she had time aplenty to watch, seemingly from behind a glass wall, as her friend leapt in front of the searing bolt of lightning as live meatshield.

_Zuko!_

Katara lurched forward towards Zuko's crumpled form, but then the glass shattered and everything became a blur as she dodged and swerved to avoid the blue electricity arcing all around her. Somehow, she ended up atop a metal grate.

_If Toph was here, she could just bend it. Wait, what's that sound?_

Katara stole a glance downwards and caught the characteristic ripple of flowing water, which seemed almost _black_ when illuminated by the ruddy red light filling the sky.

_It's worth a shot._

Encouraged, she made an about-face and went on the offensive against Azula...which proved to be an exercise in futility. After a series of attacks that were effortlessly repelled by the psychotic princess, Katara leapt behind a pillar to recover her wits. Azula followed her into the columnated walkway, taunting her with each step.

Katara ignored her, refusing to let the Princess' goading words break her concentration.

When Katara came face to face with Azula, the Princess chose to lunge forward with outstretched fingers for what she thought would be the fatal strike.

But there is no such thing as a fourth strike.

Katara raised a sudden spray of water before freezing it to trap her and Azula inside.

Despite the degree of her firebending prowess, Azula had never learned the fire breath from her Uncle. Such techniques were hopelessly basic and well beneath her. The Princess still didn't regret ignoring her Uncle's _focus on basics _mantra. In her mind, Iroh was just as much of a coward and fool as Zuko. Either way, he deserved nothing but scorn.

Bound in chains and over the edge of insanity, Azula lost control of her bending as she sobbed hysterically, _maniacally, _spewing forth uncontrolled blue flames from her mouth like a string of expletives.

* * *

Katara ignored the fallen princess and ran over to Zuko's side. He deserved her undivided attention now.

She gathered a handful of water from the ground and sheathed her hand in it, causing it to luminesce with a dazzling blue light as she ran it quickly over him.

On the outside, he seemed to be intact, if slightly pale. A fresh swathe of red, burnt skin was evident on his stomach, but there was no gaping wound, as had been with Azula's prior victims.

But appearances had never been so deceiving.

He had been somewhat prepared to redirect the lightning, but his position mid-air had thrown off his control of the flow and it had crossed over his heart. Katara could feel his heart writhing and contorting in pain as it struggled to keep up with the erratic beat.

Struggling with the mental effort, Katara imbued her healing water with the vibrations of her own pulse and forcefully laid it on top of his heart in the hopes that it would latch onto it and match the beat.

The water seemed to _pulsate _rhythmically as it transferred the tempo of her own heartbeat unto him.

Finally, after another nail-biting moment, she could feel his heart relaxing and the rhythm returning to semblance of normalcy.

But he still didn't wake up.

Katara fought the urge to grab Zuko and try to shake him awake by the sheer force of her limbs, to scream his name out or kiss him-

It was at that moment that Katara decided to kiss the fallen prince in the hopes that he would wake up. To say that he wasn't handsome would be a complete and utter lie. There was a certain undeniable appeal to the way his smooth black hair clung to his perspiring forehead, or the way his exposed muscles of his chest appeared to _glow_ against the ashen backdrop of the burnt stones beneath.

His mouth was slightly ajar, and it didn't close when she moved closer...and closer. She hesitated. _I'm just doing this once, _she told herself, _to wake him up_. She knew that this was wrong,_ wrong_ on _so_ many levels. She almost stopped when she recalled Zuko's regret in leaving his girlfriend _twice _in two months.

_Just this once. It's not going to turn into anything anyways..._

If Zuko didn't want her this way, then she would understand. Truthfully, it was as much as a thank-you for saving her life as it was an expression of her sudden attraction to him.

_Just this once. _

The memories of the three kisses she had shared with Aang came to her mind_. _They had kissed _three _times and she had only recently begun to feel a tentative attraction to him. _If _she had been unaware of Aang's feelings a week before, she had been made fully informed of them during their last night on Ember Island when he had laid them out quite clearly for her.

While it would be a lie to say that she completely blamed Aang for the sudden rift in their friendship that had resulted four days ago, he certainly did bear the brunt in her mind. Aang had forced himself on her when she had made her confusion as equally clear as his feelings for her.

He had avoided her the entire next day when _she_ had tried to talk to him, to try patch the hole that opened up between them. In front of the others, they acted as if nothing had happened, but when she cornered him he mumbled something about understanding her not wanting to be with him before turning her away or trying to run back outside, even if he was exhausted from his bending training and ready for his afternoon nap.

_That_ she could deal with. He was an airbender after all, and she understood that it was in his nature to avoid conflict. That was why his admission on the theater balcony had caught her so off guard.

Her real anger with him resulted from the way he had abandoned his friends and left them to fend for themselves. That by itself made her _extremely_ angry. How could he so heartlessly leave them, _her_, when they needed him the most? She felt like he had run away out of spite, using it as a perverse way of exacting some petty emotional revenge for her rejection of him. Did he understand the meaning of confusion?

His actions seemed to scream immaturity in contrast to those of Zuko. Zuko had stayed by her side, giving up his enviable position to fight the Fire Nation despite the odds.

Her anger and frustration with the perceived immaturity of the _Avatar_ of all people led her to thoughts she had never had before and caused her usual inhibitions to fall down, and when her open mouth crashed against Zuko's, the Prince unconsciously spread his lips wider. Katara gasped as his hot breath entered her mouth.

_What are you doing? Just-mmph..._

Katara felt a lingering, unsettling guilt in her stomach as she absorbed surprising amount of heat from him. There was a thrill that she had never felt before in the way Zuko instinctively responded to her, and it had been only their first kiss, with him half-unconscious to boot.

If she hadn't been so distracted with Zuko, she would've realized her own unsettling feeling of there being someone watching.

No, not the poorly-hidden pairs of eyes peeking out of the halfway-drawn curtains covering the windows of the surrounding palatial buildings.

The clouds that had dotted the sky only minutes before had cleared, leaving only the empty air as a witness to the scene below.

~~~~~~~

70oda: It has both elements of that, but I can't say how this story will end right now. Rest assured, however, that it won't end up with Aang doing something wacky and having total amnesia about his feelings for Katara.

Malevolent Dark Reflection: Thanks, an important goal of this story is to balance the narrative so it treats the characters with dignity. This chapter will probably push your buttons a bit. Hopefully, Katara doesn't come off as being _too _OOC in this chapter. Remember, some character-bending is necessary for the AU to happen...so yeah.


	4. From Afar

A/N: Chapters from now on will be longer as the story picks up. Also, I'm wavering between doing a happy ending and a sad ending, or possibly doing both. What do you guys think?

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA, which _in fact _belong to Mike/Bryan/Nickelodeon.

* * *

**From Afar**

High above the frothing, relentless ocean beating away at the foundations of the rock pillars dotting the Wulong forest, Firelord Ozai struggled against his rock restraints to tear his face away from the piercing glare of the Avatar hovering above him.

The sight was simply too transfixing to not watch, and if this was his end...well, fighting to the death against the Avatar did always have a morbid appeal to him.

When he met the Avatar's glowing eyes however, all he could feel was fear.

Naked, unbridled fear replacing the fire coursing through the veins, a fear so strong that he lost his breath despite the sudden overabundance of air spinning all around him.

Fear written all over his face and oozing out from every pore.

**"Firelord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world. You shall pay the ****_ultimate _****price." **

Summoning long, streaming tendrils of all four elements that looped high into the sky and back down, the Avatar made a downwards jab with his hand, intending to finish the Firelord once and for all.

* * *

Aang was reeling with grief. The sudden onset of the Avatar state had left him confused and unaware of his own uncontrollable actions.

He saw images of a the devastation a hundred years of war had wrought, beginning with that of his home enveloped in a flaming inferno as _the _comet crossed the sky overhead, the painful cries and the _whoosh _ of flames blending together in a sickening dirge.

He saw a disconcerting panorama of dozens, hundreds, _thousands _of burning cities, towns and villages, endless swathes of forest and jungle and farmland put to the torch to deny the enemy sustenance and shelter.

He saw the resulting mountains of bodies killed by fighting or fire or famine piled in mass graves or simply left in the ash-filled streets and dirt roads where they had fallen, the grimy bones turning from black to grey to white as they were left untended and bleached under the relentless sun.

Some places simply had no survivors left to bury the dead.

Almost completely overwhelmed by fury and grief and unable to resist the emotional response that the prior Avatars had induced in him, he retreated to the one thing he held most dear, the calming sanctuary that could temper his turbulent emotions like it had at the Southern Air Temple and in the Si Wong desert.

Katara.

A deluge of emotions spilled out uncontrollably at the mere thought of her, as it always did when he was so mentally unguarded. Uncountable memories of her smiles, her laughs and her gentle touch flooded his mind, each taking the place of a terrifying specter or devastating loss he had felt.

As had happened before, the love that he knew she felt for him cleared away the terrifying visions, allowing the blind fury that had dominated his vision for all too long to finally fade. Bit by bit, he regained control of of his body and actions.

Not a moment too soon.

He felt the raw power at his fingertips and saw the Firelord tilting his head away from him, as if avoiding a blow to the head - _a deathblow_. Panicking, he pulled back at the last possible second, allowing the power imbued in the tendrils arcing downwards to dissipate and the restraints to fall back into the rock.

Ashamed at what he had almost done, he turned away to recollect his thoughts.

"No - I'm not going to end it like this." Aang balled his fist as he tried to figure out a way to restrain the Firelord without killing him. Leaving his bending was too dangerous. Perhaps there was another way...

But the Firelord didn't give him time to think. Lunging forward with a clenched fist, Ozai's surprise attack came to an abrupt end before it had even reached the target. Aang kicked backwards to trap Ozai's right arm in rock pillar. As the Firelord struggled to free his arm from the first restraint, Aang walked around and trapped his other hand in rock before stomping down forcefully to lower the restraints, taking the Firelord down as well into a kneeling position.

Ozai was completely perplexed. His sudden attack had failed completely - how had the Avatar detected it? Now he was restrained once more, but with a fully in-control Avatar about to do _something _to him.

If he was going to die, it would've happened already.

He knew better than most that there were many fates worse than death.

His fear had never been greater.

Desperately, he breathed out a jet of fire to keep the Avatar at bay, but it was of no use, as a sudden blast of air forced it back into his mouth and his vision blanked into a white haze.

* * *

**_In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements, but the energies within ourselves. _**

_Simple enough, right? _

Aang instinctively placed his head on two different chakra points, one on the Ozai's forehead and one above his heart.

_The insight chakra and...the love chakra? _

At this point everything was by pure instinct.

He didn't particularly feel like enlightening Ozai about love right away, so he decided to focus on the insight chakra first.

He found Ozai to be consumed by loathing for the other nations, which he deemed to be inferior to the Fire Nation. He drew forth his own understanding of the truth, something that was so deeply ingrained within him that there wasn't even a doubt that his belief was unbendable.

The Air Nomads had always been the element of freedom. Their simple lifestyle was an affirmation of rather than an exception to to this belief, as they believed that material attachments inevitably constrained and limited one's choices in life.

Instead, they shared their few material possessions within their entire nation, treating each other as if they all belonged to one giant family. They _did _have separate bloodlines and different interests and aspirations in life, but separation within their nation was a myth. From the Guru he had learned that the four nations were actually one people, much like his people were one family.

Aang shared this truth with the subdued Firelord, and while he couldn't force him to _believe _it, he could force him to acknowledge it as a valid thought for seemingly the first time in his life. That admission of validity was enough to surge deeper within Ozai's defences.

The next chakra was love.

Aang had no clue where to start, so he fell back onto what the Guru had told him.

**_You have indeed felt a great loss...but love is a form of energy. _**

Thus, instead of looking for _thoughts _of love, Aang began to search for the tendril of _energy _that represented love.

From Zuko's descriptions of his family, he knew that Ozai probably had some twisted version of what could only passingly called love, so he sought out the flowing energy all around him that represented his own love. He knew he couldn't bend Ozai to his will if he didn't understand love himself.

**_...and it swirls all around us._**

He reached out towards the ethereal mist all about him, focusing on the one source of love that he thought was incontrovertible and unmovable. Only it could truly stand up to Ozai's nigh-unquenchable hatred towards the rest of the world.

_I love Katara...but..._

All of a sudden, his confidence began to wane as he recalled his last real conversation with her.

* * *

"Are you alright?" Katara asked. _I wish I knew...it could just be the play, right? He's taking it harder than I thought he would though - is there something else that's bothering him? _

For a moment, Aang resisted turning to face the familiar voice. He wasn't sure if she could truly help him with his swirling self-doubt and frustration.

Her simple question, he knew, was really an invitation to tell her about whatever was bothering him. Perhaps he hadn't bothered to hide his turbulent emotions as he had unconsciously hoped that she would give him a chance to seek her help.

_Katara will understand. She's the only one who ever does. _

In a voice that was a bit more forceful than intended, he began to express everything that he felt was wrong. The play had brought forth memories of his continuing failure and Aang wasn't sure if they were really as bad as they had seemed.

"No, I'm not. I hate this play," he started. _And? _

Katara cringed slightly at the angry edge in his voice. Anger was an emotion that she still hadn't quite gotten used to feeling from the young Avatar.

"I know it's upsetting," she began as she calmly stepped to his side, "but it sounds like you're overreacting."

Aang immediately recalled the last scene in the play that he watched before storming out.

**_"But I thought you were the Avatar's girl." _**

**Katara only laughed in a airy, mocking tone that made Zuko's suggestion seem completely absurd. **

**_"The Avatar? Why...he's like a little brother to me! I certainly don't think of him in a romantic way." _**

**Katara stopped talking and surreptitiously scooted closer to the scarred prince. **

**"Besides...how could he ever find out about ****_this_****?" **

**Aang walked out as the actors embraced onstage. **

In his mind, Aang refused to bring up the implied romance between Zuko and Katara. He trusted Katara as much as - and sometimes,_ more_ than - himself. His initial reaction had been a knee-jerk one, but he knew now that it _couldn't _be real.

_The monks said...to never assume the worst. To never judge. But I can't help but feel...angry, even if it wasn't real. _

Instead, he tried to talk about something that had been on his mind the entire time since his death in Ba Sing Se.

"Overreacting?! If I hadn't blocked my chakra, I'd probably be in the Avatar state right now!" Aang gestured wildly and turned away from her as he spoke, as if he were only truly speaking to himself.

In a way, he was.

While he regretted saying anything about the blocked chakra almost immediately, to his relief Katara didn't seem to understand at all, choosing instead to gaze silently into the moonlit night sky. His resolve to keep his personal feelings out of the conversation faltered when he felt that he couldn't hold out any longer. He just _had _to know the answer to this _one _thing.

"Katara. Did you really mean what you said in there?" he asked in a half pleading, half accusatory tone.

"Where? What are you talking about?" she replied, completely at a loss to what he meant.

Aang crossed his arms for what was sure to be an embarrassing confession.

But he had to know...if _everything_ had been worth it.

If he had given up the Avatar State for something that he had never had - her _love_.

If the consequences of millions of Earth Kingdomers falling under the iron yoke of oppression had been a giant blunder, all for nothing.

If the failed invasion and hundreds of their allies being captured had all been in vain, their loss having been easily preventable if he had only given _her_ up like he had been told to.

If it hadn't been a giant mistake to hope for something _more_.

"Onstage. When you said I was just like...a brother to you...and you didn't have feelings for me."

"I didn't say that!" she cried indignantly. "An actor said that." _How could he possibly think that-_

Aang minced her words thoroughly and panicked when he realized that she hadn't outright denied it, by calling it a _lie._

"But it's true, isn't it? We kissed at the invasion...and I thought we were going to be together." Aang paused slightly to let the words to sink in before continuing. "But we're not."

Katara felt as if Aang had suddenly earthbent a giant sinkhole in front of her. She didn't know how or what to respond to him with...it had all been to sudden, too unexpected-

She didn't know his side of the story and why he had felt the sudden need to pressure her.

She turned away from him and fixed her gaze on the shimmering ocean water which rippled entrancingly in the moonlight. "Aang...I don't know."

Aang felt an apprehension, a shivering feeling that crawled up his spine at her cryptic answer. Katara had usually been so _forward_ about things to him. He knew that she would never intentionally hurt him, but he had learned to notice when she would skirt around certain topics to protect him.

"Why don't you know?" _Is she...does she not feel that way? But..._

"Because...we're in the middle of a war...and we have other things to worry about!"

It was true...but not the whole truth. It had taken only a moment to realize how much Aang meant to her and instead of reassuring herself, they only caused her to feel fear.

Fear of losing him, like what _had _happened under Ba Sing Se. Aang had come back to rescue her...and he hadn't been able to effectively use the Avatar state, like he had before.

So much was at stake, and Katara only wanted to find a way to _not _hurt him or distract him from what needed to be done.

He had to realize that some things were more important than her. Katara still couldn't accept her mother's self-sacrifice any more after confronting her killer, but she _could _understand. Her mother had been right, even if she wished with every fiber of her being that she hadn't been.

"This isn't the right time."

Aang seemed to not understand, however. He seemed unconvinced and confused by her sudden digression.

Eyes downcast, Aang tried not to show all of his fear plain on his face. He didn't want to seem like a helpless little _brothe_r to the one person he loved most, even if he knew he _could _allow his facade to fade in front of her.

"Well...when is the right time?"

The summer nighttime breeze seemed completely unable to dispel the tension thick in the air.

Her response and his resulting actions would haunt them both forever, not for what they meant, but for what would eventually result from them.

"Aang...I'm sorry, but right now I'm just a little confused."

Aang leaned in and kissed her.

Katara recoiled from his sudden gesture and angrily rebuffed his advances.

"I just said I was _confused_!"

Not only without answers and assuming the worst but also mentally rebuking himself, Aang was left beating his head on the wooden handrail as _Katara ran _back inside still in shock at what had happened, disbelief discoloring her normally radiant expression into a pale shadow.

* * *

Memories of him stubbornly pushing her away and ignoring her desperate attempts at conversation when they had last seen each other sprang unbidden into his mind.

_This isn't the right time! Focus!_

Distracted by his recollection of the jarring memory, Aang hadn't noticed Ozai's orange glow snaking up his arm and onto his chest. Belatedly realizing that he was losing the mental tug-of-war, Aang recalled the rest of what he had been taught by the Guru.

**_The Air Nomad's love for you has not left this world._**

For his entire life, he had been fully immersed in their culture and had embraced every tenet of his identity as an Air Nomad. He _had _truly loved them, even if some _were_ a bit crotchety or strict. Now that they were gone...

**_It is still inside of your heart. It is reborn in the form of new love..._**

_Katara...she loves me, right? As more than a brother? She __**was **__just confused..._

He decided at that moment to allow the spark of hope that had been snuffed out on that fateful night to re-ignite for good.

He could trust her.

Reassured with this singular, unshakable hope, he finally began to win the mental battle, re-emerging from the suffocating orange glow with a single overwhelming counterblow that finally vanquished Ozai's soul and removed his firebending.

**_Let the pain flow. _**

There _was_ an alternative to hate, if one let the pain flow. Love transcended death and was reborn anew.

* * *

Sokka shifted onto his good leg as he adjusted his posture into a more comfortable position.

"What the heck is Aang doing?"

"Don't ask me, Snoozles. I can't even see this giant balloon. How am I supposed to know what's going on outside?"

"Maybe some sort of Avatar-thing..." Suki suggested.

"No...he was just in the Avatar state. tt seemed like he was about to-" Sokka's voice changed into a rushed cry. "Ohno! Aang-"

Suki looked up from her control panel to see the larger figure of the two, obviously the Firelord, getting up out of his restraints

"What-what is he doing!?" she whispered in a hushed tone.

In a split second, Ozai lunged forward while Aang still had his back turned.

Sokka had never been so afraid for his best friend than he was at that moment.

_Aang! _

From a distance, all they could see was a jet of fire spraying into the air that blocked both Aang and the Firelord from view.

"What-"

"Shh!" Sokka intoned forcefully.

"What's going on you guys?" Toph asked impatiently.

For a moment that seemed to stretch for all too long, that all-important question went unanswered. Then the smoke cleared and the bent, restrained figure of the Firelord became clearly visible.

Sokka heaved a giant sigh so powerful in dispelling the tension that his companions almost wondered if he were an airbender. As soon as he began speaking however, the image of wisdom and patience that was often associated with Airbenders promptly dissipated at the first word that came out his mouth.

"So Aang was about to..._kill _Ozai. At least that's what it looked like. Then he stopped all of a sudden and let Ozai out of his restraints, and while he was hesitating, the Firelord tried to sneak-attack him, but somehow Aang saw it coming even while his back was turned and in like...five seconds he had the Firelord captured again."

"Toph, that was all for your benefit. I saw most of it myself." Suki added.

"Wow Sokka, that's amazing!" Toph's rare sincerity was evident in her actually using Sokka's name. "But...what are we going to do with the Firelord? He's been fighting Aang one-on-one for like half an hour." _I hate to admit it, but he's too dangerous, even for us._

While Sokka and Toph stared at each other apprehensively, Suki noticed a strange light emanating from both Aang and the Firelord.

"Sokka, look!"

Sokka turned his gaze back to the pillar of rock bathed in blue and orange light and found that he could not turn his gaze away.

For almost a minute, the two of them continued to stare wordlessly at the eery, transfixing beams of light shooting up into the rust-red sky, unable to tear their sights away for even one moment.

For some reason, the light seemed to be more than just the glow of the Avatar state. More than mere colors; the light seemed to pulsate and writhe as if it showing the souls of those emitting it.

Everyone held their breaths as the lights seemed to push against one another. When the blue light finally enveloped the orange and the Avatar remained standing, Sokka and Suki took a collective sigh of relief, leaving Toph somewhat reassured but still confused about what exactly had happened.

* * *

Aang fought the urge to double over from the lingering affects of his overexertion.

Ozai, still unaware of what had just happened but plagued by suspicion, tried a weak lunge that did not produce even a single flame.

"What...what did you do to me?"

It was a completely rhetorical question. He had answered it himself mere moments ago.

"I took away your firebending. You can't use it to hurt or threaten anyone else ever again."

_It worked...it's over. _

He was about to allow himself a bittersweet smile when he noticed the fire consuming the land all around him.

He called upon the Avatar state, but after only a moment he felt it slipping beyond his control. He could access it for a mere moment, but couldn't stay in it for any extended period of time.

_Guess I haven't __**quite **__mastered it yet. _

The energy that had built up in that short moment, however, was sufficient for him to raise a giant wave and wash it gently over the burning land along the coast and around the crashed airships.

With everything taken care of for the moment and the Firelord completely subdued, Aang seated himself in a cross-legged position and allowed his energy to enter the earth, searching for a familiar spirit much like he had done in the swamp and had inadvertently done at the Eastern Air Temple.

He had to know if Katara was safe.

**_Everything is connected..._**

It was so, so far, almost _too _far, over vast oceans and mountain peaks and wide plains...but he found her. The pull was too strong, their bond too great, his will to find her too powerful...

Zuko laid flat on his back on the stone brick court, a patch of burnt skin showing on his completely bared chest.

Aang froze with fear before he felt Zuko's heartbeat reverberate through the ground like a drum.

When he shifted his gaze to look at the person hovering over the unconscious Prince, he audibly sighed in relief at the realization that Katara was safe as well.

However, his relief evaporated when Katara moved down towards the fallen Prince.

The surroundings faded away into a blank canvas as he watched Katara shudder slightly as she kissed Zuko, her treasured turquoise necklace the only part of her that seemed even remotely familiar anymore.

For several painful seconds, Aang's heart stopped beating, as if he had died and become a ghost, a silent witness unable to do or say anything.

It soon became clear that she _giving_ wasn't him air in some strange attempt at resuscitation or trying any other of the half-hearted attempts at explaining away the situation that Aang had come up with.

But still he watched, watched in painful, excruciating horror and dumbfounded disbelief.

He _did _feel anger and rage and betrayal and the rest of the emotions that he had been taught from the moment he could talk to ignore and dispel with thoughtful introspection and prolonged meditation.

But most of all he felt regret.

He had been a fool all along.

After one last, lingering gaze, he let go of the connection and allowed the vision to disappear and the blackness to claim him.

Hope is a double sided sword.

* * *

No, Aang is not dead, just unconscious.

**Reviews:**

**lucky97mary: **Thanks for the review, I love new readers!

**70oda: **Don't worry, Aang will keep enough Kataang just by himself. About knowing how everything had happened, yes this chapter does go a bit of a way towards that, and future chapters might have flashbacks.

**Malevolent Dark Reflection: **Actually, I _greatly _appreciate reviews like yours. Of course, Katara's self-centeredness is _usually _only a spur-of-the-moment thing. But for this story, I'm actually going to have her _like _Zuko instead of simply running away from Aang, as that is the difference between a 'Zutara' and a 'Kataangst' story.

Now, for killing or not killing Ozai: I agree completely that this was THE moral conflict for him during the last four episodes, for reasons that everyone already well knows. However, I feel that he did finally accept the idea of _killing _Ozai after talking to Avatar Yangcheng: "I guess I don't have a choice, Momo. I have to kill the Firelord." Then he found out how to energy bend and he saved the day and his own soul and everything else. You can see in this chapter though that Katara is at the center of his identity and his 'unbendable' spirit, as it had been shown repeatedly throughout the series to be. (she's the only one who can pull him out of the Avatar state, etc.)

As for giving Katara space, obviously there was a giant misunderstanding between them on that balcony, and I've read fanfictions that try to explain what had happened or postulate what _might've _happened had it not been resolved, which is sort of what I am doing, but with the added 'Zutara' twist.


	5. Awakening

A/N: Please review if you like this story. Other than that enjoy the story!  
Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA, which _in fact _belong to Mike/Bryan/Nickelodeon.

* * *

**The Awakening**

Instead of a the searing pain of a burn, all he could feel was a clear coolness, like that of a forest brook flowing over worn riverbed stones.

As Zuko regained consciousness, all he was aware of was the near-deafening thud of his heart in his chest like some fierce war-drum in the midst of battle.

He opened his eyes and was greeted not by the comet in the sky but by a pair of stunning ocean-blue eyes, a sharp contrast to the lingering smoke rising from the ground all around him or the thousand variations of red stretching from the buildings on the ground up to the bleeding sky.

_Katara._

He tried to open his mouth to talk, but he realized that they were already open.

And wet.

And pressed against something soft.

He realized how close Katara was to him and finally understood that she was _kissing _him.

_What? _

_Katara kissing me? _

Zuko was confused and somewhat agitated at the sudden realization. He didn't shove her away forcefully in the indignant manner he almost did, however, but instead chose to try to gently push her away.

As_ gently_ as he could.

He awkwardly lurched his head to the right and Katara immediately understood, raising her own head to give him his breathing space.

As she sat up from her bend over posture, Zuko looked towards her as if expecting some explanation, but when he actually saw her his words froze in his mouth.

He cringed as the admission finally rose in his mind, but he knew it was true.

She _was _beautiful.

There was no question about it.

She was beautiful and exotic and the way her long mahogany hair fluttered in the smoky wind made him gulp in fear at the sheer beauty of her, as if she held some sort of power over him.

It was unfair.

_What? What is WRONG WITH YOU ZUKO?! YOU CAN'T THINK OF HER THIS WAY!_

He shook his head vehemently as the voice of reason bellowed in his head, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist in a futile attempt to quiet it. Instead of quieting, however, he only managed to turn the single voice in his head into a cacophony of hushed whispers and sly suggestions.

_You can't have her. You're betraying Mai all over again. Aang is your friend; what would-_

Without realizing it, he impulsively began sitting up, moving closer to her

And then she leaned away, a shadow of fear suddenly crossing over her face.

"Zuko-" she began, stuttering in embarrassment- "I...I shouldn't have kissed you. I'm sorry."

Katara shook with the sudden, _horrifying _realization of what she had just done. In a momentary impulse she had taken advantage of Zuko's unconsciousness and Aang's absence to do something - something terrible and regrettable and-

Zuko gruffly interrupted her thoughts offhandedly, as if commenting on the weather or some other mundane subject.

"It's fine...I was just surprised. That's all."

Katara wasn't reassured in the slightest, however. She knew what she had done.

Instead of relief at finally admitting her newfound feelings for the scarred Prince besides her, however, she only wished that she could forget it, take back the moment of pleasure that would haunt her for the rest of her life-

_What-what have I done? _

Shaking with fear, she slowly turned back towards Zuko.

His mouth was set in a grim line, and his head was tilted slightly so that his hair fell across his eyes and blocked them from her view.

His mind was filled with guilt at memories of Mai, who he had left behind and abandoned _twice_.

He thought that he would've made things up with her, return to what they had before he left during the Invasion...

The realization that he _did _have some sort of attraction to Katara was an uncomfortable admission that he needed more time to understand fully.

He and Katara had only known each other for a few short months.

He had known Mai for _years _both before and after his banishment, when they had gotten back together as if nothing of true consequence had happened in the three years since they had last seen each other.

And then there was _Aang_, who had been the first to give him a chance after his botched attempt to kidnap the airbender for himself.

Who had saved him at the North Pole from freezing to death in the arctic wasteland.

Who hadn't turned him in to Earth Kingdom patrols after his ill-fated chase across the Earth Kingdom had left his Uncle near death.

When they had been worst enemies, the Avatar had somehow found space in his heart for mercy.

How could he throw all that the boy had sacrificed by reciprocating Katara's feelings?

Of course, these were only the most obvious of the hesitations in his mind.

When _had _he become so hesitant? Zuko had usually been the most forward of the group, always urging to do whatever had to be done in not-so-friendly reminders, like he had done when talking about Ozai-

_Oh, spirits. Aang is fighting my father...and Katara kissed me behind his back. _

If Zuko's face could've been drained of any more blood, it would've at that moment.

"Katara...I don't know how to say this. I...definitely _do _like you. As more than a friend. But...it's not right. Not right now."

Completely lost in her own thoughts, Katara could only nod wordlessly and pull her knees closer to herself, rocking from side to side in a futile attempt to calm her fraying nerves. Too many thoughts of shame at her own actions had flooded her mind at Zuko's admonishment.

The one person she usually turned to for comfort couldn't help her with this. She knew that she would only hurt him if she told him, anyways.

"This...never happened." Zuko said slowly, as if stating an incontrovertible fact despite the evidence written all over his and Katara's faces. His voice seemed to imply that he was trying to convince himself of its truth as much as he was Katara.

Katara could only nod again, repeating the motion like some lifeless doll.

_What were you thinking? _

Katara blinked quickly to prevent the tears from flowing.

_Everything was fine...then you just had to mess things up. _

Her empathetic nature made her cognizant of Zuko's hesitation...and helped her envision Aang's reaction if he found out.

_He'd probably be angry...like he was on the balcony. I said I was confused but...by going after Zuko, I basically confirmed everything he was fearing. _

_At least Aang...he won't know. It would hurt him __**so **__bad if he found out._

Katara only wanted to protect the young airbender. The more she thought, however, the more she recounted her eerie premonition of being watched while she had first began to kiss Zuko.

_Will he? _

Katara shivered despite the sweltering mid-summer heat as she recalled his devastated expression at her recoiling from his kiss.

_Aang really likes me, but what if - if I don't like him? As more than a brother?_

Unconsciously, she compared Aang's eager, _boyish_ face with Zuko's more mature one; one that was _handsome _and appealing in a way completely different from Aang's.

_He's my best friend and I don't want to lose that...but I really like Zuko. _

Finding no easy solution, Katara could only continue to brood in a sullen silence.

Two weary souls sat on the cooling pavement, separated by mere inches but each drowning in their own swirling storm of thoughts.

* * *

A grey, ominous tempest surrounded him on all sides, the pelting rain and gale-force winds easily able to overwhelm his thin monk's robes. However, he was out of its grasp, watching the unfolding scene with a fearful gaze as if unsure of himself. While lightning flashed all around him, he, at he center of the storm, was left strangely untouched.

It would not last.

Once unmovable and unshakable, the pillar which he clung to began to turn to an ashen, brittle dust, each speck instantly picked up by the wind and blown into the grey sky never to be seen again.

_Aang, wake up! _

Lying on a cold metal cot inadequately covered by a thin, rough blanket, all he could do was to avoid shivering uncontrollably in abject horror as the scene kept repeating itself in its mind.

"Aang, wake up!"

Sokka's worried voice finally stirred Aang out of his nightmare enough for him to acknowledge Sokka with a low grunt.

"Good, you're awake. What happened out there?" Sokka asked expectantly, trying his best to cross his arms but failing miserably because of his crutch.

"I dunnwannatak about it." he mumbled lethargically.

Aang's mind blanked out as he tried to block out the disjointing thoughts that he had been having. Sokka didn't deserve to have them unloaded onto him like as an unwanted burden, even if he was a wannabe therapist.

"I mean, the whole thing was _amazing_, but what did you do at the end? The part with the different colored glowy lights?"

"I..." Aang hesitated for moment before continuing. "...took away his bending."

The warrior piped up at that.

"Wow, I gotta-"

"Sokka, don't."

Instead of hearing relief in his friend's voice, all he could hear was sadness...and pain. Worried at the sullen disposition of his best friend, Sokka tried to reassure him on what he thought was bothering Aang's mind.

"What you did out there...I'm really proud of you. It was the right thing to do."

"Thanks Sokka." Aang _tried_ to smile, but all that came out was a painful grimace. A moment of happiness could not dry even one drop of the ocean of remorse drowning him.

"Katara went with Zuko, didn't she?" he asked. His quiet voice was layered with such a complex web of emotions - fear, hope, pain, suffering, regret, accusation, betrayal and anger - that all Sokka could do was to grunt in affirmation at Aang's sudden inquiry.

_How does he know? He was unconscious the whole time..._

Aang knew it wasn't fair to ask Sokka about something he probably tried his best not to think about, but he knew that besides himself, Sokka knew Katara the best.

Besides, he wasn't sure if he knew Katara as well as he thought he did...not anymore.

"Do you think she likes Zuko?"

"What-obviously not!" Sokka cried in a flabbergasted voice. Recalling his sister's pale expression after returning from her 'talk' with the young Avatar, Sokka suddenly became suspicious and somewhat annoyed at Aang's sudden nosiness.

"Is this what you've been thinking the whole time? What did she say to you on the balcony?" he demanded in a rush of syllables.

_He just defeated the Firelord - the FIRELORD and all he can think of is Katara? _

"I-just nevermind. It was wrong of me to ask."

Aang cradled his head in his hands and turned away from Sokka.

"No, it's not. If you're worried about her in that way, as her brother, I can tell you that it isn't true."

Sokka paused thoughtfully as he scratched his chin with this free hand.

"Remember Jet? Katara liked him too. That wasn't the worst part about him, but it was pretty high on my list."

"What, so if Katara likes a guy he's automatically bad?" Aang joked weakly.

"You're dang right they are!" Despite his indignant voice, there was a hint of a smile on his lips.

"I know that you like Katara, you know."

"What-how?" Aang cried.

"When you made a necklace out of my fish line, that's when!" Sokka replied in a voice half-serious and half-joking.

Aang could tell, however, that Sokka was trying his best to reassure him after his titanic struggle with the Firelord, much like when he had his Wang Fire beard before the Day of Black Sun.

_Only Katara would really know what to say in a situation like this..._

He could never talk about this to Katara, however.

Not after he had made it so clear to her and she had rejected him with her words on the now-infamous, stupidly unforgettable wooden balcony-

All he wanted to do was to see her again, to hug her and hold her close-

_Was what I saw...real? _

Aang remembered the way Katara been so protective of him at Zuko's sudden appearance.

She _had _wanted to protect him, but as a friend...or something more?

_Does she really think of me only as a brother? _

"Aang?"

Sokka's persistent voice brought him out of his thoughts, and he found himself feeling sorry for leaving the warrior hanging while he stewed in his own problems.

"Sorry Sokka...I'm tired. I guess I'll go to sleep now."

His excuse would've been laughably transparent had the atmosphere in the room not become so stiflingly somber.

"Ok...is there anything else you need? You're not hurt somewhere that...I can't see are you?"

Sokka blushed furiously as he recalled going over Aang while the boy had been unconscious, checking for obvious signs of bruises or cuts. There were several areas on his body that he was unable or unwilling to view, however.

"No, I'm fine. Just one more question - how far are we from the Fire Nation Capital?"

_Wha-how does he know where we're going? Is he psychic or something? As if this day weren't weird enough already. _

"A few hours. You were out for the whole afternoon and night so it's early morning now."

Caught between sighing with relief at the small window of time he had been afforded to think and shaking with fearful anticipation, all Aang could do was to flop back down with a loud groan.

"Thanks Sokka. Can I sleep now?"

With a bittersweet smile, Sokka gently got up from his sitting position and left the room, sliding the metal door closed but not locking it.

As soon as Aang heard the soft click of the closing metal door however, he sat up and crossed his legs in a meditative posture, trying to reestablish the balance he had worked to hard to achieve which had been destroyed so haphazardly.

* * *

Zuko tried not to show his nervousness as he made his way to the Capital Barracks, but it was written all over his face and in the shaking of his limbs. Still not fully recovered from the effects of the misdirected lightning and shaken by Katara's sudden admission of having _feelings _for him, he could only stagger slowly along the gritty stone path towards what would surely be a nerve-wracking encounter.

He had to convince the leader of the garrison to pledge the loyalty of himself and his men to _him _when he had their _current_leader in chains.

The Fire Sages had stepped aside, but they were both too few and all well past their prime fighting age. Their loyalty was incredibly suspect anyways.

Besides himself, all he had was Katara...and with the fortified compound so far from the shore and any significant source of water, he wasn't sure how much of a help she would be. She was obviously embroiled in her own mental turmoil, something that Zuko didn't especially want to get involved in when he had so much riding on this one moment.

Behind hm, his sister Azula lay in a half-rotten, dilapidated wooden wagon with a rhinoshoe wedged in her mouth to discourage firebending. Without the evidence in front of their faces, he knew that the soldiers would never side with him, not with Azula's fearful reputation and his own status as a traitor. Even then it was a risky gamble...but a necessary one.

Katara walked up slowly beside him and laid a gentle hand on his back.

"I know I already told you at the courtyard, but I-"

Zuko impatiently silenced her with a strained glare before returning his gaze to the sides of the road for any sign of the garrison.

"Not here and not now. Later."

Katara swallowed her pride and tugged hard on the wagon, one of the wheels of which had caught in rut in the poorly-constructed cobblestone road. Panting with the effort, she finally lifted the wheel out of the rut and returned to his side.

With downcast eyes, she tried to reconcile her newfound feelings for the prince besides her and her confusing feelings for the Avatar.

_Choosing between the prince and the Avatar...like I'm some sort of princess..._

The entire situation was so _wrong_, so absurd, that for a moment all she wanted was for the choice to be made _for _her. It was all too confusing otherwise.

She knew that she connected with Aang on some deep, fundamental level. Nobody else could bring him out of the Avatar state like she had done so at numerous times. It had taken some time to realize it, but she had thought that Aang had only wanted some encourage from her before going into the hardest struggle of his life.

After the scene on the balcony, however, she knew with painful clarity that he hoped for her to love him in a _romantic _sense...

But at thoughts of _romance_, all she could think of was Zuko's handsome face and sleek hair and the thrilling gleam in his golden eyes-

"We're here. If they attack, I want you to run." _Not that it'll do you much good...but whatever._

"No, I'm staying here with you." Katara replied stubbornly.

Zuko felt like tearing his hair out in frustration at the sheer _defiance _in her voice, but when he turned to look at her his words were caught in his mouth and he simply couldn't speak.

After a moment, he finally managed to nod and turned quickly away, desperately trying to hide the blush on his pale face.

But Katara had seen it. It offered her only a little reassurance to know that her affections weren't unreturned, however.

_Aang. How am I supposed to tell him? _

There wasn't any time to think, however. Zuko spotted a pair of spear-wielding soldiers guarding the central blockhouse, the tips of their weapons already aimed outwards as the scarred prince came into view.

When the wagon crested the hill and the bound and gagged princess came into view, however, the guards looked at each other and lowered their weapons.

"State your business."

It was an extremely pointless request, as everyone knew what Zuko was here to do.

Zuko stood up slightly straighter, resisting the urge to grimace at the tendrils of pain riding along his nerves - _show no weakness _- and cleared away the sleek black hair covering his eyes.

"I've come to speak to your leader."

The shorter of the two nodded slightly and took a step back before turning and gently tugging the intimidating iron gates open.

"Come."

"Zuko-I'm coming with you." Katara added.

"No-I need to do this alone."

_I can't bring her with me, it's too risky. She doesn't know what she would be getting in to. _

"It might be a trap!"

The taller soldier stared at her from below the his red iron helm and shook his head.

"Stay here...if you know what's good for you."

With that one silent warning, Katara reluctantly stood aside as Zuko trudged up the steps alone without a backwards glance towards her. Still bound to the wheelbarrow, only Azula favored Katara with a smile, albeit an insane and clearly deranged one, before disappearing behind the closing doors.

* * *

"Wha-What? _Prince Zuko?"_

Lieutenant Li could only manage a hoarse, poorly concealed whisper at the news of the traitor prince's sudden appearance.

Finally emerging from his ornately decorated but utterly unkempt office, Li sent a fearful glance at the grim-faced prince and the barely restrained princess before ducking back in and slamming the door shut.

The leader of the Capital Garrison was not quite what Zuko expected.

Of course, all of the _elite _units had been shipped out weeks before in preparation for the havoc they would wreak on the day of Sozin's comet. What he did not expect, however, was a spirited but somewhat distraught and woefully underprepared man who was obviously only a few years older than the men he commanded.

Zuko strained to hear the voices behind the thick door, angry that he hadn't even been able to argue his case but unwilling to aggravate the man further.

"What do we do?"

"He's a traitor! Why are you even considering this?"

"Because he defeated Azula, that's why! You know the rules of Agni Kai!"

"Do you think the _Firelord _will be so understanding? You're committing treason right now by not arresting him immediately!"

Of course, It had always boiled down to the control his father and his sister had over their hearts, which were rightfully fearful.

At one time, the young men might've relished the prospect of finding glory in the vast Earth Kingdom or the frozen reaches of the Water Tribes, but with the rumors of the massive rout at the North Pole confirmed and the Earth Kingdom all but subdued except for the constant avalanches that always seemed to bury only _firebenders_, there was little incentive and much disincentive to ever moving out of the cozy little nook they had made for themselves.

As a result of the war draft that had been in place for the past several decades, being assigned to a reserve division was quite literally a life-saving opportunity, one that these young men were loath to give up. They had only wanted to make it to the end of the war in one piece and go home.

If only they had a choice in the matter.

Zuko was about to barge in to try to make his case when the gates to the enclosed courtyard were suddenly bashed open by a lump of rock.

A formation of men in rough, dirt-stained green robes emerged from the billowing dust.

Dai Li.

* * *

Toph still couldn't believe the reality of it all.

_We've done it. _

The Firelord rolled around helplessly on the poorly carpeted metal floor, the metal bars wrapped around his body as if he were but a bundle of logs. It was funny and Toph should've laughed...

"What did you do to him?" she asked in a bellowing rage.

Ozai opened a single bleary, water-filled eye and raised a questioning eyebrow as he replied in a monotone voice.

"Nothing."

"No you didn't! He's been...out of it from the moment after he beat you!"

Ozai couldn't hide his surprise at that. He had fallen, quite unwittingly in fact, into a nap after finding out that his firebending had been stripped.

Nothing mattered any more, as he couldn't be a _Phoenix King, _much less a _Firelord, _without his firebending.

He regretted missing the opportunity to push the unconscious Avatar to his death though.

"As I said, _child_-"

Toph stripped a random metal panel from the wall and wrapped it around her delicate hands for a supremely un-delicate task.

With a loud clang, she pummeled the metal coils restraining the Firelord, sending intense, teeth-shattering vibrations all along the Firelord's prone body.

Ozai swore under his breath and tried to suppress the urge to _laugh _at the ticklish sensations running along his bones, but mercifully, before the irate metalbender could strike again, the door to the room slid open to reveal an agitated Sokka.

"Toph, he's awake! He doesn't want to be dis-"

"Oh no, not after he got me so worried. I'm going to check on him. Make sure _he-" _Toph pointed her metal-clad fist at the figure on the ground- "doesn't escape. You think you can handle that?"

"Fine, but be sure to come back soon."

As Toph stepped through a newly-formed hole in the wall, Sokka gingerly stepped over the jagged edges of the metal tiling peeking through the meager carpeting and was about to sit down besides the Firelord when Ozai suddenly tried to roll away.

Annoyed, Sokka put an arm around the coils of metal binding the Firelord and rolled him onto his back before sitting directly on top of him, bouncing up and down a few times to test the elasticity.

"This is nice...it sort of has a_ spring _to it."

Ozai could only groan in response.

* * *

Toph paused outside Aang's door, which she could tell was closed but not locked. Usually boisterous and unafraid of intruding upon the young airbender, all she could feel was a overwhelming sense of unease almost palpable in the air.

She might've blown off that one instinctual feeling...but everything else seemed off as well; his heartbeat and his breathing all seemed extremely slow.

_It's like...when he went into the spirit world on the summer solstice. I can't __**see **__if he's glowing like everyone said he was last time though. _

Toph could only turn around and make her way back to the makeship brig where Ozai was being held, her bare feet making a distinct pattering sound on the cool metal walkway.

* * *

He took a deep breath in through the nose followed by an exhale out from the mouth.

The balance that had been so easily destroyed was not as easily restored, however.

He tried to reach for the past Avatars within him, but the delicate calm needed for such a task was far beyond him now.

He didn't know what to do, who to talk to-

Once again he was alone in the world, carried by the wind like a leaf from places best forgotten to destinations best unknown.

* * *

**Reviews: **

**Malevolent Dark Reflection: **Thanks, I try to put some thought into the details as I go along. The awkwardness will be in the next chapter, so stay tuned. (wow do I sound corny saying that)

**Charlie'Rocker**: Aang's feelings will go to dark, dark places. I can't say much more than that, but its good to see this story appealing to a wide range of people.


	6. Before the Storm

A/N: Um, sorry for not updating sooner. :l

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA or it characters, which belong to Nickelodeon, Mike, Bryan et al.

**Before the Storm**

Turning on his heels, Zuko took a defensive stance and prepared for the myriad array of chains and rock gloves that he knew the elite Earthbenders were apt to use.

Nothing came.

While the lead earthbender eyed him warily, the others barely spared him a glance as they split up into two lines and marched around him along the sides of the courtyard.

Within moments, Li emerged from his office with a scowl on his face.

"Huo, what are you doing here?"

The Dai Li leader glanced up from below his wide-brimmed hat with an equally grim scowl.

"We're done. We're going before _her-" _Huo pointed callused hand at the bound Princess, "-father comes back."

"You can't be serious! This..." _is treason_ Li meant to say, but then he realized that the Dai Li were already traitors to their own people.

"What, you're still loyal to the Princess?" Huo asked with a slight arch of his thick eyebrows.

By this point Azula's psychotic laughter had finally quieted down, and all that could be heard was a tearless moaning as melancholy as a the howling of a lone komodo rhino separated from the pack.

Li stared at the broken, pitiful Princess, who continued to wallow in sorrow oblivious of his gaze...and then he shifted his gaze to the Prince standing tall in the middle of the room.

He had heard the stories of course, of the boy's tragic Agni Kai, banishment and subsequent exile, and futile chase that _had _eventually turned up the Avatar. There was a certain undeniable tenacity in his character that had quite literally crossed over broad oceans and wide plains countless times. Zuko, he knew, would never give up until he got what he came for or died trying. The thought was heartwarming and somewhat endearing, even to a man still in the prime of his youth.

He felt no such thing for Azula.

He only felt a frostbitingly cold fear that froze the blood in his veins every time _she _even as much as darted her eyes in his general direction, a fear that made him want to hide and run away despite his age - double that of the princess - and rather large stature.

Of course, he could never show it. He had to be strong for his men.

_Or as strong as I can be, _he realized as Azula turned a bleary gaze towards him. An indecipherable expression flit across her face before a hazy recognition dawned on her.

She couldn't speak through the rhinoshoe shoved in her mouth, but her murderous intent was clear. Beneath the pleading look and naked desperation evident on her face, however, Li recognized the trademark snakelike, _predatory_ expression that she had given in the past to her banished subordinates.

Huo saw it too.

"I wouldn't." he said carefully, drawing out the syllables with deliberation.

Li realized that he had never felt true loyalty towards Azula, but rather only fear of her and Ozai.

_Ozai. _

"But...what about the Fi-Phoenix Lord?"

"By the looks of it, your lives are already forfeit." Huo commented wryly.

"But..."

Li's voice trailed off as he realized the reality of the situation. His hesitation had already made him a traitor in Azula's eyes, and the lives of him and probably his entire family would be cut short as soon as the Princess regained her freedom.

Slowly, his men began to murmur among themselves. They too realized that they would be purged as well given their loyalty to their officer during the entire encounter.

Li acquiesced once he realized that he had no choice. "Well...I guess we're in the same boat then." He stood there helplessly for several moments before looking to his second-in-command, who was staring at the ground with a mixture of shock and shame.

Huo nodded grimly and turned to leave. His reasons for pushing Li towards Zuko hadn't been entirely altruistic, of course. During the months of service under the nigh-implacable Princess, he had increasingly second-guessed his decision to not back Long Feng during his confrontation with her.

Of course, Long Feng was not as much of a talented prodigy as was the Princess, but Huo had realized far too late that if he and the other agents had backed him at that crucial moment, they would've been able to take her down together.

They were the Dai Li, and they had bowed down to a Fire Nation princess, one whose Nation had killed countless hundreds of their agents during the ill-fated siege of the no longer Impenetrable city.

He and Long Feng were like minded if not particularly close, only wanting to keep the city safe and peaceful in order to preserve their power and the invaluable cultural heritage that had accumulated there over the millennia.

They had a fondness for power, yes, but they were also connoisseurs in every sense of the word.

Rather belatedly, Huo had discovered the removal of some of the precious metal ornaments from the Palace complex, priceless artifacts that had only been smuggled out of Omashu mere days before it had capitulated. It had taken several hours to gather the nerve to confront the Princess about it, but she had nevertheless blown it all away in a mere moment of utter, earth-shaking fear.

_You should be trying to convince me, who has not decided whether or not to kill you, rather than worrying about this molten gold, which has already decided that it wants to kill you, _she said in her characteristically high, lilting voice.

He had come to hate her then.

Huo had finally realized that he hated the Princess, the entire Fire Nation, and most if not all the people he had met in it.

He _did_, however, like some of the Fire Nation citizens that he had been forced to brainwash.

_Maybe I'll have the chance to brainwash one more. _

Li interrupted his meandering thoughts with a cough. "_How_ are you going home, exactly?"

"Airships."

Zuko, who had been watching with avid interest at the various emotions racing across both men's faces, finally spoke up.

"You both don't know what my father is planning to do, do you?"

"What, he's using the comet to crush the resistance in the Earth Kingdom?" Huo asked in a tired voice.

"Worse. He plans to burn it to the ground...from the sky." Zuko corrected.

Huo paled when everything he had noticed over the past month began to click together: the elite imperial firebenders leaving the capitol, the airship fleet rebasing at a nondescript island...

"But..._she..."_ Huo slowly turned to the fallen Princess and lifted an accusing finger-

"She_ promised_!"

"Azula always lies."

* * *

A Fire Nation Airship meandered through the silver-tinted clouds, which appeared eerily translucent against the bright backdrop of the full moon overhead.

It wasn't moving _that _fast.

An airbender with a glider would've easily outflown it.

One airbender in particular, however, wouldn't have done so even if he had taken his glider when he had been drawn from his slumber to meet the lion turtle.

Rather absentmindedly, Aang wondered where Appa was. He hazily recounted his memory of finding Appa in the swamp, and at the recollection of the familiar feeling of drawing on their spiritual connection his mood promptly fell to ocean-trench depths one more.

It wasn't fair of him, he knew, to cling to her out of some misguided sense of self-entitlement, even if he had given up everything that he had in the hopes that they _would _be together.

Nothing was fair, but of course that was nothing new.

In another universe, the Avatar would've spent the hours following the defeat of the Fire Lord sagely contemplating the meaning of his victory, the state of the world, and most of all, the possibility of a future with a certain waterbender.

Instead, Aang couldn't even connect with his past lives anymore for guidance. Even if he was physically meditating, emotionally he consumed by a tempest of self-doubt and frustration.

He could only sit there, paradoxically both perfectly still and hopelessly adrift.

* * *

With a loud crunch of twisting metal, Toph gracelessly punched yet another hole in the paneling separating the cargo hold from the hallway.

While Sokka nearly fell over backwards on top of the bound Firelord, he quickly caught his footing by bracing his hands behind him and flipped back onto one foot with a grunt.

"Hey Toph-"

"Sokka, I'm worried about Aang."

Her serious tone left no room for question, but Sokka couldn't help but wonder if something was up. The fact that her voice had lost its usual lightheartedness meant that _something _was up.

"Yeah - me too. He seemed so _tired _earlier. What's wrong?" Sokka asked as he began rolling the Firelord towards the rapidly widening hole in the wall. He struggled tremendously with the effort because of his broken leg and Toph was forced to pick up the burden.

"It's like...when he went to the spirit world. On the day before the Invasion, remember?"

"Yeah. Why would he go to the spirit world now though? He already beat the Firelord _and _took away his bending."

As Toph helped Sokka drag Ozai towards the bridge by sliding the metal panels below the bound Firelord, she realized that she couldn't wait to be sure.

"I don't know, but can you check on him just to be sure?"

"Alright." For a moment Sokka wondered why Toph needed him to check up on Aang, but then he remembered that she couldn't _see _if his tattoos were lit up.

Before long, they had reached the bridge, where Suki was leaning rather lazily against the forward control array, staring wordlessly at the starry nighttime sky...and the moon that took center stage.

Framed by the moonlight, Suki, with her loosely tied auburn hair fluttering ever so slightly in the fragrant breeze of the ventilation uptake fans, seemed positively heavenly.

As a result, Sokka's heartbeat spiked rather predictably and Toph rolled her eyes in exasperation. After an inordinately long moment Toph finally spoke up, seeing that Sokka was too entranced at the moment.

"Hey, Suki!" Toph said rather too brightly.

Startled, Suki jumped as she jerked her gaze towards the door, but she relaxed immediately when she saw Sokka and Toph.

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"We're going to check up on Aang together, but someone needs to look after the loser lord."

"Um...ok."

Suki stared at Sokka while Toph bent a pair of metal pipes from the ceiling around the Firelord, leaving him bound face down several feet above their group. Sokka returned her intense stare and the two of them shared a small, private smile.

Almost too quickly however, Toph grabbed one of Sokka's arms and began to leave. Suki easily caught the sly smirk on the young Earthbender's face, and the way Toph put her arm around his waist to 'support him' raised alarms bells in her head.

The bells turned into giant, resounding gongs when she noticed a bright red blush coloring Toph's cheeks.

_I see._

"Wait- Sokka, can you pilot this thing? It can't be good for you to keep walking around like that."

"Nah, I'm fine." His eyes, widened, however, when Suki forcefully tugged him away from Toph.

"Hey Toph," Suki began in a bright voice, "could you bend a chair for Sokka?"

"Sure, no problem."

After bending a reasonably comfortable chair out of the riveted metal floor paneling, Suki gave Sokka a quick kiss on the cheek before turning to leave with Toph. Even as Sokka turned to return the kiss, Suki had already made her way to the doorway by Toph's side, leaving him alone despite his grumbling protests.

As they left, Sokka sat back into his chair with a confused frown on his face.

"What was that all about?" he said aloud to nobody in particular.

Looking on from his metal restraints above, Ozai had seen what had happened quite clearly, but he also equally clearly knew that he didn't care enough about their squabbling to give even one flaming fire flake.

* * *

With Sozin's comet already almost gone, the Fire Nation capital had fallen strangely quiet once again.

In the thickness of night behind bolted doors, rumors swirled and gathered strength. Some said that Azula had been defeated by Zuko in an Agni Kai, and some said that his waterbending friend had defeated her. Some even believed that the two of them had worked to defeat the Princess.

A few such rumors even hinted at something _more _than friendship between the two of the Avatar's friends, but while quite a few people spouted the drivel, few if any paid any actually attention to them, for these rumors were surely the most bizarre and fanciful of them all.

All but a few.

After 'escaping' from the Boiling Rock with Ty Lee, Mai had snuck aboard a resupply airship and stowed away in the rafters of the cargo hold, her receptive ears picking up the excited chatter of the loading crew below. Some of the rumors were troubling, but her experience in such matters helped dispel the anxiety a different person might've felt at the overheard insinuations.

After a rather boring flight, she and her acrobatic friend found themselves not in the capital, but several miles away in a military base filled to the brim with supplies and prisoners.

Since they were both experienced graduates of the Imperial Girl's Academy, they easily found uniforms and were able to truly act the part of soldiers, joining a convoy heading to the capital to reinforce it - which side, nobody knew yet. Of course, their small group was merely one of many heading out of the web of supply dumps and forts surrounding the Capital, each led by a ambitious officer or two looking to claim a slice of the crumbling royal pie.

* * *

Li stood slightly taller than Zuko, but he didn't look down at him as he kneeled on a one leg and clasped his hands together. Behind him, dozens of his subordinate officers copied his motions, and despite their muttering none of them refused to perform the motion outright.

Zuko watched dumbfounded as they began to reaffirm their loyalty to the sun-blessed Throne of Fire and the descendants of Agni who sat upon it.

He knew that he hadn't even been crowned yet, and he wasn't one for formalities - usually. While he was happy that he _did_ have them backing him, he was also aware that he hadn't been the one to actually convince them - it had actually been the rogue Dai Li leader, who was now on his way home aboard a commandeered Fire Nation corvette. He wondered why they had backed him when they didn't even know if Aang had defeated his father.

"...from now until the Sun vanishes from the sky."

Besides him, Katara, who was standing slightly to his side, smiled brilliantly. She was obviously very proud of this moment for Zuko and was happy that he had finally begun to find acceptance among his people.

Seeing Katara's smile, Zuko forgot what else he was supposed to say in response to his newly pledged men to and only managed to bow slightly in a rather unassertive motion and nod for the men to stand up, but as he did, the clanging of a distant bell reverberated through the early morning air.

From the observation tower overhead, a panicked sentry set down his scope and held up a large signal flag with a black oval clearly visible against the crisp red fabric.

"Incoming Airship!"

* * *

"Sokka's a nice guy, isn't he?"

Toph shrugged noncommittally at that. "Well, he saved my life. I guess so?"

That innocuous comment caused Suki to recall some of when she had traveled with them on their way to Ba Sing Se.

"Hmm...do you remember when I swam out to save you when we were in the Serpent's Pass?"

"Yeah?" Toph replied cautiously. She looked away slightly when she felt Suki's expectant gaze on her shoulder and picked up the pace to Aang's room. _Now that you mention it, why don't we talk about something else? _

"Well, I thought it was pretty sweet of you to kiss me...",_ but do you usually kiss people who save your life? _Suki added mentally.

"Uh huh. Well, we're here."

Usually Toph didn't knock on doors before entering them, but this time she did.

* * *

The air in the room was a bit stuffy, and the cloudiness that it induced in his mind turned out to be a merciful reprieve. He tried again and again to detach his spirit temporarily and allow the spirits of past Avatars to diffuse out, but his efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. He was in too much turmoil and self-doubt to achieve even this basic technique, and the reality left him frustrated and even more confused.

After a bit of introspection he wondered if what he had thought he had seen had actually just been a fanciful nightmare, like those he had had before the Invasion on the day of the Eclipse. Those had been a bit silly to be sure, but they were equally as vivid as the vision he had seen atop the rock pillar.

He would feel a bit embarrassed if it turned out that he had made it all up in his mind in some ludicrous, divergent thought.

On the other hand, he really, _really _wanted to believe what he had seen was true - and that Katara and Zuko were both safe.

Either way, he soon realized that there was nothing he could do to assuage his fears before meeting them both for himself.

The sound of a metallic tap on the doorway jarred him out of his meditation, and as he opened his eyes he warily eyed the shadows beneath the door.

"Twinkletoes, are you there?" Toph called from behind the door.

"Didn't you say that he was in the spirit world or something?" Suki whispered all too loudly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting...I was meditating." Aang called out in a hasty voice.

He sheepishly uncrossed his now-numb legs and rolled up off his bed, standing up and leaning against the metal wall for stability.

The door swung open and he found himself face-to-face with Toph and Suki. Before they could exchange any further words, however, a familiar voice rang out from the loudspeaker located outside his door in the narrow hallway.

"Guys, we're almost there. I mean we are there. Here." Sokka grumbled incomprehensibly before continuing. "You know what I mean..." he added before cutting off.

"Well, that was odd." Aang said slowly.

"C'mon, let's go to the bridge." In her excitement, Toph pulled Aang so abruptly that he nearly fell flat on his face, if not for Suki lunging forward and grabbing one of his flailing arms.

"Toph, can you be a bit more gentle?"

"Sorry. I'm just glad you're ok." To everyone's surprise, Toph then enveloped Aang in a full-blown if brief hug.

"Wha-what are you guys talking about? Of course I'm ok." Aang replied nervously.

However, Toph immediately picked up the tell-tale signs of lying and her good mood dissipated.

There was no time for her to ask, however, because as she opened her mouth to ask him what was bothering him the entire floor began to tilt slightly, sending the debris littering the ground tumbling down the hallway.

A moment later, Sokka's panicked voice came over the loudspeakers once more. "Can you guys come to the bridge? I need help flying this ship!"

* * *

As the barracks began to come to life with dozens of clanging alarm bells, Li stood up abruptly and made his way to Zuko's side.

"What are your orders?"

"Uh-?" Zuko stammered as he wracked his brain for ideas.

Li gestured wildly to the catapults mounted atop the surrounding towers. "We don't have many options here. We either allow it to land, or we shoot it down."

"Why would we want to shoot it down-"

"Your father could be aboard."

"But...my friends could've commandeered one as well." _Hopefully - what other explanation is there? The rest of the fleet would've returned if they could...something must've happened to them!_

Li gave Zuko a quizzical look before responding.

"I guess you could be right...it isn't your father's airship, after all."

While the presence of the airship was troubling, the fact that it was alone had a different meaning altogether.

"Can you signal it?"

Taken aback but seeing the logic in his answer, Li made the necessary preparations and in a matter of moments a pair of men were opening and closing the blinders of a lit lantern in quick succession, the pale light emitted easily illuminating the hazy early morning air.  
Another thought soon emerged unbidden into his mind.

"What should we do with Azula?"

"Imprison her in the Capitol Prison."

Even as Zuko seemed completely confident in the loyalty of his men - for the moment - Li knew better. He resolved to personally escort the deranged princess to a cell block and keep guard himself until he could find enough other trustworthy men to form shift details.

By his own estimation, several dozen of his men had already disappeared, doubtlessly engaged in some sort of rebellion or at the very least unwilling to follow through with his orders.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Toph called out as she barged open the metal door and ran into the bridge, followed closely on her heels by Aang and Suki.

"I'm losing altitude - and I don't really know why." Sokka replied mournfully.

"How the heck are we supposed to fly if we can't stay up?" Suki asked. She face-palmed when she recalled her earlier actions while piloting the ship by herself.

"Um...there was an alarm going off earlier, when I was piloting." Her nose wrinkled as she recalled the memory. "Something called 'pressure' or something...does that mean something?"  
Sokka stroked his chin thoughtfully, even as the airship titled forward and the horizon shifted above the line of sight. "Well, it may mean-"

"It means you're all a bunch of peasants who can't comprehend the greatness of the Fire Nation." Ozai sneered condescendingly from his perch.

Sokka replied in kind almost immediately. "Hey, I helped to invent the war balloon! You don't know what you're talking about, _loser lord."_

"Is there a way I can airbend the Airship? It's in the air and stuff...I mean it's flying, so there _has _to be a way, right?" Aang offered.

"No, I don't think so. All the balloons and airships are powered by either coal or firebend-wait, you can firebend!" Nearly jumping out of his skin with relief, Sokka eagerly pushed Aang towards the doorway when the entire bridge lurched forward to the sound of screeching metal.

While a cacophony of yells filled the air, Suki leapt atop the control panels and yanked hard on the a lever, causing the entire airship to tilt towards an even steeper vertical angle.

"Suki, what are you doing?" Toph inquired incredulously as she encased everyone's feet in metal to prevent them from tumbling away.

"We're on bottom of the ship. If we crash-land then we'll get squished-"

"Maybe we should all go atop outside? It's better than getting-"

"-ok, can you guys stop talking and figure out how to crash-land this ship?" Sokka complained. He looked up and saw a ball of light blinking in rapid unison near the back of the volcanic crater, and jerked the steering wheel in its general direction.

"Sokka, are you sure about this?" Aang asked doubtfully. "Maybe we can just land in the courtyard down over there." he suggested, pointing at the large expanse in front of the palace gates.

"Alright." Sokka grunted as he turned the rapidly descending airship towards the sole patch of space large enough to avoid crushing a house.

While Sokka locked the steering in place, Suki ushered the rest of their group towards the back of the cabin, a safe distance away from the front of the bridge in case the glass was to shatter.

* * *

"Mai, look!" Ty Lee exclaimed in an excited voice.

Mai's gaze followed the direction of her friend's outstretched arm and settled on a rapidly approaching airship, tilted at a dangerously steep angle towards the ground.

Based on the airship's trajectory, she estimated that it would land squarely in front of the Palace gates. _Not bad for a crash landing, _she thought to herself.

Mai tilted her head, and Ty Lee understood immediately. They shot quick glances at the other soldiers in their convoy who were chatting excitedly and pointing animatedly, and slipped away from their komodo rhino wagon without notice.

* * *

"My Lord, the airship isn't following proper landing procedure." a sentry announced.

Zuko, rather than being perturbed or annoyed at the obvious cluelessness of the pilots, began to feel immensely relieved.

"No matter. Let's go meet them directly." _Time to face see if it's my Father, or Aang. Hopefully Aang. _

Zuko shifted uneasily as he realized that he wasn't eager at all to meet the young airbender.

Katara seemed to be having the same thoughts, and she nervously extended her hand towards Zuko, grasping his larger, warmer ones and pressing their palms together.

Li, who stood a few paces behind his Firelord, caught the gesture easily and made a mental note. The only action he took for now, however, was to assign a pair of guards to the waterbender for extra protection.

As the pair of benders started towards the palace, Li rallied a dozen of his men and started towards the Capitol Prison with Azula in tow.

* * *

Toph realized rather belatedly that they might be heading into a trap. She had eagerly anticipated being reunited with the earth and imagined what she would do as soon as they touched down, but her ruminations only made her realize that their group didn't know what had transpired in the Fire Nation Capital in their absence.

She quietly nudged Aang as the Airship closed the final few hundred meters towards the ground, floating down _somewhat _gently as Sokka managed to tilt the fins sideways so as to create drag.

"Hey, Aang." she began, using his actual name to let him know she was serious, "Katara and Zuko are alright, right?"

"Yeah, they're alright." Aang said quietly. He paused a moment before continuing. "At least I think they are...I'm not really sure."

Toph felt the lie in his second statement. _He's sure that they're alright...but why is he so down about it? Is there something else he isn't telling us? _

Suki, likewise, had heard the tiniest edge of sadness in his voice. She too was confused by the departure of the airbender's normally radiant demeanor, but she shrugged it off as being related to his battle with the Firelord.

And in a way, it was.

* * *

Zuko and Katara ran down the streets towards the Palace, followed closely on their heels by a handful of guards that Li had assigned to protect them. The main body of the garrison was spread out across the Capital, securing the vital assets that would be necessary in the coming days and weeks to solidify the new Firelord's rule.

As they turned a corner, the front edge of the airship suddenly came into view, a large, scarred mass heading towards the ground at a slowing pace. Zuko held up a hand and his impromptu group halted in its tracks.

From inside the cabin, Aang, Sokka, and Suki all breathed a sigh of relief as Zuko and Katara came into view, causing Ozai to bang his fist as hard as he could against the metal paneling in sheer, unparalleled rage.

However, his hands were bound very tightly together, so only Toph heard anything, and only a light tapping sound at that.

While Toph followed her friends in sighing with relief, she also noticed when Aang tensed slightly at something he had seen outside of the window.

As had often happened before, however, there was no time for a thoughtful analysis of her observations. The entire room suddenly shook with tremendous force as the tip of the airship crashed into the ground, the thin metal sheet crumpling like rice paper against the unyielding ground.

_Better it than this cabin with all of us inside, _she reminded herself.

When the shaking had ceased, she nodded to Aang, and the two of them stomped down hard, bringing a earth spike up to support the wobbling airship and a crude ramp to roll their sole prisoner down on.

Toph rather carelessly half rolled and half shoved Ozai down the ramp before jumping down out of the airship and raising a pillar of earth to catch herself midair.

Due to his injury, Sokka went next, supported by Suki on his left side.

The sun was just rising up above the eastern ridge of the volcano, and it would've been a beautiful sight. The silver-tinted clouds and the pale yellow moon seemed to linger beyond their nighttime post and into the early hours of dawn. The ocean breeze somehow managed to find its way inside the rim of the volcano, lending the entire scene a crisp edge.

Aang hesitated slightly before following his friends down the ramp.

_I might as well as face it head on...I can't take__** not**__ knowing any more. _

At last he forced himself to come out, walking with heavy steps down the earthen ramp as Momo clung tightly to his left shoulder.

Zuko and Katara both moved forward at that moment, each of them greatly relieved to know that Aang was alright and had survived the battle to return in one piece.

However, as Katara took in Aang's slightly slumped shoulders and the barely disguised hodgepodge of fear and desperation in his expression, she immediately realized that he hadn't.

Filled with a dawning apprehension at knowing that _something _was different about him- not in a good way -and beginning to suspect the cause of the change however _impossible_ it was, Katara shivered despite the warmth of the midsummer wind and instinctively reached for Zuko's hand.

At that moment, Aang also looked around to try to find the source of Katara's apparent discomfort only to be greeted by the sight of her and Zuko's intertwined hands.

Following his gaze, Katara soon realized her mistake and quickly untangled her hands from Zuko's, ignoring the firebender's bewildered expression and hoping that Aang wouldn't make anything out of what he had seen.

_He has no reason to, does he? Of course not...you're just being paranoid._

For a moment, she allowed herself to believe it had all been a fluke, a random, awkward beginning to a reunion that would hopefully soon dissolve into tight hugs, bright smiles and unrestrained laughter.

* * *

Review Responses

Malevolent dark reflection: Thanks for reviewing! The next chapter will begin to deal with everyone's reactions to Zuko and Katara's new relationship...there are a lot of people, so that will take a while. I hope I didn't drag out the setup too much. As for the Dai Li, unfortunately they only wanted to save their own skins, but they will be coming up later in the story. No long story can go without a visit to Ba Sing Se, and no visit to Ba Sing Se is complete without Dai Li.

70oda: Thanks again for reviewing! As for Aang being evil, don't worry about him challenging Zuko to an Agni Kai or being possessed or something wacky like that. :P As for the 'vision', we know that he has been able to do that in the past with people he has a spiritual connection with.


	7. Confrontation, Part 1

Sorry for not updating sooner- I'm posting this so that I don't go TWO months without an update. :l

Disclaimer: A:TLA belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nickelodeon.

**Confrontation, Part 1**

A thin, gossamer-like tension hung lightly in the air, unsettling everyone in some intangible way. The gradually brightening glow of the rising early-morning sun cast a faint glow over the endless ocean stretching into the horizon.

As Aang followed his friends onto solid ground, the entire world faded away into a dusky haze. He didn't look anywhere else but at _her_ in a desperate attempt to calm his fraying nerves and allay the fear that threatened to consume him.

Katara had never been afraid of him before, he recounted, even when he had been in the Avatar State, full of unrestrained power and uncontrolled actions. Certainly, she had been afraid _for _him many, _many_ times, but never _of _him_. _

Why did she seem afraid now?

The turbulence of thoughts pressed hard on his mind, but the young Airbender tried to force a calm demeanor. He knew they were genuinely worried about him in the same way he had been worried about them after defeating the Firelord.

However, at the sight of their clasped hands- a sight that had been belatedly concealed- he became extremely agitated and his carefully maintained composure to disintegrate in an instant. Suddenly feeling his knees lock and instinctively reaching for his absent gliderstaff, he began to topple and would've fallen flat on his face had Toph not intervened at the last moment and raised an earthen pillar to support him.

"What's wrong Twinkletoes?"

"Urgh-Nothing." he blatantly lied, his tight voice easily giving himself away. The pain of smacking into solid earth had jolted him out of his thoughts back into the physical world. While Sokka extended a strong arm across his back as he lifted him, Katara and Zuko quickly closed the distance to see their friend for themselves.

"Are you alright?" Katara asked skeptically. While Zuko's gaze darted back and forth between her and Aang, Toph's sightless eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Yeah...I just said so," he bit out, sounding more terse than he intended to be.

"So," Zuko began in an uncertain voice, "I see you defeated my father. Good job." He turned towards the bound Firelord, who was shivering despite the growing warmth of the morning sun and tried to smile at Aang- but it came out as a grimace.

"Well," Aang replied, furrowing his brows as he looked up at Zuko, "Good job defeating Azula."

An awkward moment of silence hung over the the two of them; Aang hung back from moving closer to Zuko, and he did likewise. Their friends looked at them both, confused at the shift in their countenance from only days before.

"Actually, Katara defeated her. I got shot with lightning." Zuko admitted while looking at Katara uneasily.

"Oh?"

"Maybe he redirected the lightning?" Suki suggested. "Zuko taught Aang how to do that."

"Well, sort of. I didn't completely direct the lightning. I- halfway redirected."

"What happened?" Sokka asked curiously. "It sounds like you were caught off guard or something."

"Azula was aiming for me, but Zuko jumped in front of her and took the hit." Katara said evenly.

"So, you beat Azula by yourself, and then healed Zuko?"

"Yep."

While Zuko's gaze continued to dance nervously between the two of them, Aang crossed his arms, a indecipherable expression replacing the normally expressive ones he wore.

Everyone stood still for a moment then, feeling the tension becoming increasingly palpable- the air becoming increasingly thick with it.

"So." Suki said to break the silence, "do you want to hear how Aang defeated the Firelord?"

At this, several of the guards and a few interested bystanders came closer as well, and Zuko and Katara had to lean in to avoid being blocked off by the crowd of onlookers.

While Zuko seemed genuinely interested, Katara acted strangely nervous and wrung her hands idly. When she didn't speak at all, Zuko gave Katara a questioning look before speaking up for both of them.

"Yes, I do. I'm sure Katara wants to as well."

At this moment, Sokka apprised his role as a storyteller once more. "Well, we snuck aboard and hijacked an airship. When we got to the Earth Kingdom we saw Aang already battling the Firelord on some rock-pillary-thingies. There were a lot of booms and crashes-" - and Sokka filled in here with appropriate sound effects - "and then we saw Aang had trapped Ozai in some rock and had him kneeling, like this."

Sokka kneeled down in front of Suki with his arms spread out, as if he were trying to flap imaginary wings.

"Oh-oh- and also he was in the Avatar state most of the time. Well, actually about half - but that was the good part."

Suki put her right hand on Sokka's forehead and her left hand on his chest. "Then, after Aang did something with his hands like this, the sky lit up, and after another minute the light disappeared."

"He took his bending away." Toph added quietly, almost as an afterthought.

"He did what?" Zuko asked, incredulous.

"Watch." Toph replied, a dangerous grin written on her lips.

In one quick motion, the chains binding Ozai fell away, causing his unbound hands to flop uselessly to the sides. While Zuko and a few - but not all - of the guards reacted by taking firebending stances, Aang sighed and jumped onto the incoherent man's back and picked up the chains lying uselessly by the sides.

"Geez Toph, you don't have to scare them like that." he said crossly.

"Sorry, it was too good to pass up on. You have my word as Melon Lord that I won't do it again as long as I have melons."

While Zuko rolled his eyes and motioned for his men to restrain the unrepentant firebender, Katara continued to stand quietly in the background.

"So, what do you think of it Katara?" Sokka asked. He nudged Aang to try to get him to smile, but all he could manage was an unconvincing twist of his face.

"Sure." Katara replied quietly, causing Sokka to frown in confusion.

Sokka couldn't help but be befuddled by her reaction. _It's not a yes or no question, Katara!_

Truth be told, she _did _think it was incredible - but the unease that had haunted her from the Agni Kai had not dissipated, and she was beginning to understand why. The way Aang had focused on her almost exclusively only served to remind her of what he had said to her before - when he had confessed his feelings to her - and her own confusing feelings after the Agni Kai.

For Zuko.

The easy camaraderie and unbridled enthusiasm that had once characterized their interactions was no more.

"Aang, why don't you tell us _how _you took his bending away?" Sokka suggested.

"Uhm- I'm not sure if you guys would understand." he said uncertainly. "Besides, it's not that interesting."

"I thought it was the best part." Toph said. "I tried to watch the bending part, but I couldn't catch a good view." Once again, a smile was playing on her lips and it only took a moment for everyone to realize what she was saying. The joke was funny- but only a few hesitant chuckles resulted. Everyone was too unnerved by the unanticipated awkwardness that had sprung up.

"Well, it was basically a battle of wills." Aang explained. "Each person has energy that represents their life force, and I sort of _bent _his to take his bending away."

"So, you sort of beat his will with your own?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah - I have to go into his mind and face off with him in a mental battle. It seemed like it took forever but I think it only took about a minute or so."

Suki narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Wait, so did you look inside his mind?"

"Yeah - Well, not exactly. I worked through his chakra points." Aang turned towards Sokka and put a hand on Sokka's forehead and a hand over his chest. "Like this. The forehead is the insight chakra." -Aang then turned towards Katara at this moment- "and the heart is the love chakra." His gaze bored into her - a potent mixture of emotions, but mostly sadness - as he dropped his arms to his sides and breathed out slowly, as if expecting a gesture or sign. _Expectantly._

Katara only stared woodenly at him, a melancholy frown sketched onto her normally bright and radiant face, seeming to mouth '_I'm sorry'._

Aang became aware of a looming fear then, a spine-numbing, bone-chilling coldness that easily banished the comparatively weak warmth of the late-summer sun. He turned away from Katara as he was unable to look at her any longer.

He didn't want to hear any more unspoken words, to read the apologies in her lips-

Even as she stepped closer and turned his body so they were facing each other, Aang turned his head and looked away, focusing his gaze on the single cloud in the distance that had not yet been blown away by the ocean breeze. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes, finding some comfort in feeling his native element flow into him.

Things would be different now, he knew.

At that moment he finally _acknowledged_ the bitter truth. He had never seen it coming- he had moved on from his lost life so many years ago, to end an old war and save a new world- but in the end he had_ lost_...

_She doesn't feel-she doesn't __**love**__ me._

He breathed out.

The young airbender didn't even notice the tears beginning to stream down his face and his battered body beginning to shake with the beginnings of a sob as he clenched his fists tightly.

His friends were even more bewildered - they could not fathom the reason he was so obviously heartbroken all of a sudden. Tears of joy would not have resulted in such a display of sorrow.

Only one person understood, but she could do naught but watch from afar as if a yawning chasm separated them.

* * *

Zuko felt a churning sensation in his gut. He easily saw the desperation written all over Aang's face as he looked at Katara.

Of course, the impassioned firebender had only been traveling with the Avatar for a few weeks, but he had learned a few important facts in that short time, the most important of which was to tread lightly and to be gentle with Aang whenever Katara was around. The first real firebending lesson had ended abruptly when Aang had incorrectly parried a fireball and singed his robe, causing him to yelp and twist around in an attempt to put it out.

Katara, who had been watching from the sides as she reluctantly washed Zuko's clothes with the rest of the Gaang's, reacted violently. She pulled all of her water out of the stone fountain in the center of the courtyard and doused Aang from head to toe with it, extinguishing the flame which Aang had already almost completely put out by himself. When Zuko had protested, she had pulled a long tendril of water and wrapped them around his legs, causing to pitch forward. He would've nearly broken his nose had Toph not intervened at the last minute and caught his falling body with a rock pillar.

Clearly, she was _extremely _protective of the young Airbender – and the boy had been completely infatuated with her - even _he _had seen that. Zuko wondered sometimes if she knew the full extent of the feelings that Aang reciprocated towards her.

She knew now, he knew. Her face had once again became a pale shadow- and he would've instantly linked it to the expression Katara wore after the intermission during the play they had gone to see on Ember Island had he not been so busy regretting his own unscrupulous actions that had been portrayed so unflatteringly onstage.

For now, he just stood there, unsure of what to do- and whether anything he did could truly help in this situation.

* * *

She really _did_ hate to hurt him this way. Every time his body shook or a tear dropped onto the interlocking stone pavement, she felt like a knife was twisting deeper into her.

But she couldn't bear the heavy guilt every time he looked at her expectantly - and he seemed to be distantly aware of it as well, however impossible it was. The pained grimaces and the swing of his mood between feigned detachment and thinly veiled desperation had attested to that. What other reason did he have to suddenly become so cautious and wary around her?

Katara had been standing still the entire time, her signature interest in the young Avatar replaced by forced apathy as a rising sensation of foreboding took shape within her. A few others had picked up on the sudden change in her demeanor- mainly Sokka, it seemed- but only Zuko knew the reasons why, and she had an inkling that he was busy, embroiled in his own tempest of thoughts.

Unexpectedly, Aang seemed to understand when she tried to impart some sense of apology into her gaze.

Of course, that didn't mean he accepted it as quickly – and how could she expect him to?

She wondered absentmindedly how deep his feelings for her really went- but then, she had cut him off when he tried to explain, after all, so how could she expect to know?

A sinking feeling was all she was aware of the moment Aang doubled over in seeming physical pain, and it only sank deeper with each rapid, tear-choked breath he made. The painful facade had faded away, leaving only disintegrating fragments in its wake.

* * *

A pair of figures in flexible, fire-resistant red uniforms darted across the rooftops adjoining the palace. One of them spotted the tail end of an airship elevated at some strange angle into the air, and tapped her partner on the shoulder.

"Mai, over there!"

Mai turned around from looking at the palace courtyard back towards her friend, Ty Lee. Narrowing her eyes, she caught the hazy shapes of a gathering crowd surrounded by guards who struggled to balance their own interest in the historic events taking place and keeping the crowd from advancing any further.

She moved to the edge of the roof, taking care to step over a loose roof tile. When Ty Lee didn't follow her, she paused and turned her questioning gaze towards her acrobatic friend.

"Are you coming?"

"Wait- I think something's happening!"

* * *

"Katara, do something!" Sokka exclaimed as he grasped Aang around the chest to prevent from collapsing completely onto the ground. The young airbender continued to shake – whether in distress or pain, Sokka couldn't tell. What he knew for sure, however, was that Katara could help him, like she always had.

Toph, who was already prepared for such an eventuality but didn't grasp the reasons for it in the slightest, bent a solid ledge to catch Aang for the second time in only a few minutes.

"Ok, can someone tell me what the heck is going on?" she remarked in an exasperated tone. Underlying her outwards bluster, however, was an undercurrent of fear.

"Katara?" Sokka questioned in a raised tone.

Katara continued to hang back, a pained, apologetic sheen on her bright eyes as she struggled to contain her own reactions to seeing Aang in so much anguish. Suki began to gently guide her towards him, but she unconsciously hesitated- and after a moment, Aang stood up abruptly and wiped away the tears in his eyes, the glistening stream of moisture leaving a dark stain on his sooty robes.

In a wavering voice, he mumbled,"I'm going to find Appa," before leaping over their heads and over a wall.

Surrounded by the bewildered crowd and her increasingly worried friends, Katara followed Aang with her gaze before he disappeared into the Palace.

_Why does he have to make it so hard for us? I know he liked me, and I really do care about him, but- _

All she could think about was the look of utter hopelessness and_ fear_ he had worn when he had looked back at her.

_I'm really sorry- I should've been more careful...I could've done something! _

"Okay...what just happened?" Sokka asked.

Zuko pinched his forehead, feeling the beginning tendrils of an imminent migraine already emerging from the short confrontation- or had it been a confrontation? No meaningful words had really been exchanged.

Only a flurry of knowing glances.

As the crowd began to scatter, a pair of red-garbed figures emerged from behind the wall.

"Hi, Zuko." Mai said.

* * *

A breath of fresh air- and the wind racing past his ears- drowned out the anger welling up within him.

_Why? _he wondered. How had he been so, terribly wrong?

_And why am I- why am I reacting like this? _

_**Because the girl that you love doesn't love you. **_

_It's not my fault!_

_**You're right. It's her fault- she lied to you!**_

_No...it's nobody's fault! It just..._

"This sucks!" he screamed at nobody in particular. He gathered his wits for a moment before putting his hand down (and grimacing at the familiar sensation of doing so) to let his chi guide him to Appa.

"I'm coming, buddy."

_I'm sorry for leaving you behind like that- all of you, really. But it wasn't my choice._

_None of this would've happened, had it been my choice._

* * *

Zuko's awkward wave was getting some use once again.

"Oh, hey Mai."

"What took you so long?" she smirked. Before he could answer, she leaned in for a kiss.

Then everything began to fall apart.

Katara stared at him apprehensively and quickly looked away before her emotions could show through.

Maybe it was guilt- or rather, newly fermented doubt. Perhaps it was a wish to avoid embarrassment in public.

Zuko turned his head sideways and Mai's lips found his cheek instead. "What's wrong?" she asked, drawing back slightly with a confused look on her face.

He looked away, a slight red tinge coloring his pale complexion as he looked to Katara for help only to find her in a dark, brooding mood. His mouth opened and closed several times but no words came, looking the part of a fish suddenly stuck out of water.

Mai pressed her lips together tightly and playfully punched Zuko in the stomach. "What, don't tell me that-"

"-Alright, I'm tired of all this dancin' around," Toph growled. "What's going on with you two, and why did Twinkletoes go running off?"

While Zuko's eyes bulged incredulously, Katara spun around with a scowl on her face, more flustered than angry- and a blush clearly visible to everyone _but _Toph.

"There's nothing going on be-with us!" she declared hotly. Tellingly, the question hadn't even been addressed to her. In her rush to respond Katara had forgotten the earthbender's ability to ferret out deception.

"You're lying," Toph said simply, with dawning comprehension written beneath her jet-black bangs.

"Wha-!" she stammered before being cut off.

"You lied." she repeated louder.

Zuko clenched his jaw and pulled at his hair with his hands, feeling his raging headache rise to impossible heights. Sokka's gaze stopped flitting between his arguing friends and rested on Katara, who had walked out a step or two from Suki but was now looking away once again.

"What?" Mai said slowly. _I don't understand...how do they know she's not just messing with them, like she was earlier? _

"I don't know who you are, but don't badmouth-"

It hit Toph then- how she had inadvertently opened a can of worms in the wrong place and at the worst time.

She tried to take it back, stammering "Oh, nevermind," and "Forget about it", acting unlike her usual abrasive self the whole time. Panic had set in - but as often is the case when it does, the damage had already been done.

A can of worms inside a Pandora's box.

Her face contorted in a mixture of anger and guilt, Katara scowled. "I'm going to find Aang," before stomping off, the hem of her robe fluttering as she strode towards where she knew Appa was- and where Aang would be.

* * *

"Appa!"

A ground-shaking roar greeted Aang as he bounced atop Appa and laid prone on the bison's neck.

"I missed you too."

The lumbering beast flipped over and nuzzled Aang with his oversized nose- and Aang laughed for what seemed to be the first time in days.

After a few seconds, the easygoing laughter died off, and Aang continued to lay atop Appa's face, feeling the bison's hot breath course through the air in rhythmic bursts.

He felt oddly alone, however, almost as if someone else should've been there with him.

Appa groaned lightly, as if protesting the notion that his presence alone wasn't enough.

"Ha ha, Appa. It's alright- say, do you want to go flying? We haven't done that in almost a week!"

Beneath the easy-going tone, however, was a concealed need to escape back into the air, away from the perplexing and unsatisfying things pulling him back down to the earth. Appa could sense his master's poorly-disguised unease, but like Aang he too wished to spend time together in the air.

Aang smiled slightly, and Appa rolled over, allowing Aang to sit atop his thick neck. Just as they cleared the stables, Aang spotted a lone figure in blue robes racing towards him.

_Katara._

Aang jerked hard on his reins.

"Yip yip!"

* * *

Sokka flung his crutch to the side and messily lunged at Zuko. Instinctively, Mai let loose a throwing knife and pinned Sokka to the patterned stonework.

"Calm down!" she bellowed. Red-faced and panting, Sokka scooted back on one leg, his glare never leaving Zuko for even an instant.

"Zuko- I'm giving you one chance to explain yourself!" he replied testily.

Mai looked at Zuko for reassurance, but to her surprise he seemed to be unsure of himself as well.

_Is there something- no, how could you even think that? You don't really think that after everything you've done-_

"I'm sorry-" he stammered. He groaned noisily and ran his hand through the hair obscuring his eyes. "Your sister-"

"-Katara" Sokka corrected brusquely.

"-Katara- she kissed me-"

"_What?!_" Sokka exclaimed, waving his hands back and forth. "Why don't you-"

"He's telling the truth, Snoozles."

Mai expertly tucked her throwing dagger back into its sheath, letting the leather snap shut with more noise than necessary.

"And?" she continued. For some reason- _I've never not trusted Zuko before- why shouldn't I? He's always been- well, he's always done what he thought was right.- _she felt herself sweating apprehensively.

"-uh..."

"...you kissed her back, didn't you?" Toph remarked.

Zuko could only nod slowly, refusing to look up and meet Mai's gaze.

"Appa, Yip Yip!" Aang repeated in an exasperated, impatient tone. He yanked on the reins again but Appa didn't budge.

In a few moments it ceased to matter at all.

Katara had caught up to him, and while she was as radiant as ever she only wore a grimace.

_Urgh..._

Sighing deeply, Aang conceded defeat and got off of Appa, whose large eyes flit back and forth between them at a rapid pace.

"Aang- I'm sorry." she murmured, clasping her hands together.

Aang snorted. "Sorry for what? Not liking me the way I like you?" He fought to maintain her focus when the wind picked up slightly and blew her hair in a particularly distracting manner.

"You know-"

Anger overpowered him for a moment. "Maybe I don't!" he bit out.

"What do you mean?"

"About us!" he exclaimed. "Everything that we went through- I'm not sure what to think anymore!" He scratched his bald head in agitated circles.

"We're friends," she replied in a wondering tone, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Yes! You're my best friend!" Aang said while gesturing for effect. _As if that wasn't obvious..._

"Can we still be friends?"

"I want to- spirits know I do! It's just..."

"Why are you making this so hard for yourself? I said I'm sorry for _rejecting _you, but that doesn't mean-"

"It's a trust thing, Katara!" he said all of a sudden, his voice rising to match hers.

Katara glared at Aang with an appropriately affronted face. "You don't trust me?"

"NO," he said almost instantly, drawing out the sound as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I thought we were really close- but you-"

"What, so it's my fault now?" she declared hotly.

"You _lied _to me, Katara! All this time, you've been-"

"No I haven't!"

"-liking Zuko! At the play-"

"I meant what I said then! I was- I was confused, and you _had _to take advantage of me like that!"

"_I _said I was sorry- did you?!"

"What do I have to be sorry for? I already apologized for not _liking _you- which isn't really my fault! Why do-"

"I saw you kiss him!"

Her voice suddenly lost all its bluster. "I-I don't-"

"Why do you keep on hiding- see, this is exactly what I mean!" Aang thrust his arms upwards in sheer exasperation.

"Well, it's none of your business!" she declared fiercely.

"Maybe you're right," Aang admitted, finally reaching the limits of his anger and only feeling despair instead. His voice dropped to a low, despondent tone, the wish to simply believe that everything would be fine evident in his lethargy.

"But that doesn't change the fact that I can't trust you. I told you how I felt- twice! How come you couldn't do the same at least _once_?"

* * *

A/N: Sorry if Katara comes off as selfish - that's usually so unlike her, but it is exactly what would be expected if she suddenly began to go after Zuko. Of course, it is a momentary instance of selfishness, not a long-running flaw like what Zuko had.


	8. Confrontation, Part 2

**A/N: A short update to wrap up this chapter (sort of). Thanks for all the people who read and reviewed, as well as those who only read (and didn't review...and no I'm not being sarcastic.)**

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender (A:TLA) belongs to Nickelodeon, Mike, Bryan et al.

**Confrontation, Part 2**

She was shaking with the effort of restraining herself from making a scene- or worse. Every slight bob of Zuko's_ idiotic_ head only served to fan the flames of her anger even higher.

"Why?" she asked in a whispered rush.

Had she missed the signs, the signs that his mind was somewhere else the whole time? Sudden doubt cast a shadow over the memories they had shared together- almost a decade it had been!

"Why?! Zuko, just tell me!"

Zuko seemed to cower beneath her quiet words that seemed to carry the weight of mountains. The telltale symptoms were all there- he turned away, averting his eyes and bowing his head in shame- but it was not enough for Mai.

No, it was not enough- because he wasn't trying to explain himself, that it had been just a one-time thing or a spur of the moment or an accident or some other ludicrous but distinctly _Zuko _way of getting out of yet another of his self-inflicted problems.

He wasn't telling her to stay.

And then the truth finally hit her like a two-ton komodo rhino.

_This is it. Breakup. He's not going to say it...but it's there. _

Just as soon as she thought he wasn't going to say anything, however, he spoke up.

"Mai," he started, with tenderness in his voice, "I'm sorry."

And this time he was actually sorry, like he had been when he had left her without a word in the Fire Nation, or locked her in a cell at the Boiling rock.

_Right, __**really **__sorry_. Mai mentally rolled her eyes.

Too much had happened too soon- and all on his end, as well. For all her effort in supporting Zuko and siding with him when it mattered most, Mai felt the part of a discarded _something- _a stepping stone, perhaps, on Zuko's path of redemption that suddenly did not include her.

"I'm sorry- I mean, I shouldn't have lied to you."

He was met with a blank stare, tension drawing Mai's elegant face into a distinctive scowl.

Mai's lips parted slightly and in an incredulous voice, she asked, "Just tell me Zuko, do you love me?"

"Yes- I mean, no, not in the way-"

*_slap*_

It had been expected, really, by everyone _but _Zuko. He was lucky that she hadn't socked him in the gut or proceeded to kick him when he knelt on the ground, gingerly fingering the burning bruise on his cheek.

Then, Mai knelt on the ground, her eyes at the same level as his.

"I must take my leave, my lord."

In a fluid, well-practiced motion, she rose to her feet and stood proudly, tall and regal above the shamed man- or was it a cowering boy?- below her.

But as she looked away, tears began to stream down her face in shining rivers, and each step further widened the cracks in her facade that protected her heart.

* * *

It was as if an invisible wall separated the two of them. Aang stood by Appa, his arms crossed and his lips in a thin line that matched his narrow eyes but seemed so out of place on his face.

So many times she had supported him, been his confidant when he was most troubled or seeking a sympathetic ear. Yet now she hung back, trying to understand when she had become the root of so much anguish for him.

Didn't he understand?

_It was the middle of a war, and you needed to focus on defeating the Firelord! If I told you- you could've been distracted, and hurt! _

_I was trying to protect you! _

But Aang was shaking his head, and calling her out for not being as brave as _he _was (and oh yes she could tell that he thought himself brave!) for admitting his feelings when there was so much at stake. And now he was judging her, comparing her to him and calling her a coward. A liar, even. Katara knew she was none of those.

Before she knew it, she was answering his accusations in kind.

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I don't?"

"I was protecting you! Your duty was to defeat the Firelord, and you didn't need distractions!"

Aang sighed. That, then was the root of the problem. Perhaps that was why she had seen him differently, as someone who she always had to protect, to shield. Someone who couldn't stand on his own feet.

"And I _did _defeat the Firelord. But you kept on hiding things behind my-"

Katara was fuming by now. "-and _what? _You don't get it- we were_ never _together, so I wasn't 'cheating'"- the waterbender paused her tirade to make exaggerated quotation marks in the air- "And for your information, I can make my _own_ choices."

_Which don't include me. _

Of course, he wasn't going to argue with her for argument's sake just to nurse his wounded pride. His primary sensation was that of a directionless frustration, at the realization that an easy resolution was beyond his grasp. He _did _feel hurt by Katara's angry tone, but he didn't feel comfortable showing that weakness in front of her anymore.

Despite his best efforts to conceal his dejection, however, which was reignited at her repeated rejection of him, Katara easy saw through his facade. It was their confrontation outside the palace gates repeated all over again.

He turned away from her so that his face was concealed, hiding the sadness on his face and taking a deep breath to steady his wavering voice. "Katara," Aang conceded in a apologetic tone, "I'm sorry for pressuring you like this. I'd really like us to be friends again."

_That much is true, at least._

He didn't expect an apology- and he didn't get one. Instead, she hugged him from behind, and he resisted the urge to shiver when her hair tickled his bald head.

"I'd like that too," she said happily before pecking him on the cheek. "I'm sure you'll find someone else to make you happy." she finished without a trace of uncertainty or irony in her voice.

After a moment she stepped back, and spun him around, tugging him along slightly to walk with her back towards the others. Aang wore a fragile, bittersweet smile- but when she questioned him with her eyes he only shook his head and looked down.

"I need some time alone," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Katara nodded. "Thanks for staying to talk."

He lifted his face slightly, a small twinkle in his eyes giving away his mischief. "That was Appa's idea."

Her lips lifted at that, and she laughed. "I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah."

She smiled brightly again- how full of life she seemed!- and turned away, back towards the palace gates, waving as she turned a corner and disappeared once more.

His smile sagged with each of her steps and turned into a pained grimace when she vanished completely.

Standing along in the abandoned courtyard, the wind buffeted his loose robes, more tattered rags at this point, which fluttered violently and induced him to shiver slightly.

After a moment of further complentation, he went into the stables only to find Appa already asleep, so he snatched his staff from Appa's saddle and took off, a speck in the wide open blue sky.

* * *

Mai ignored Ty Lee's calls as she slipped between the houses, running along the rooftops with their paint cracked from the heat of the last Agni Kai. She knew the area better than almost anyone- while she, Ty Lee and Azula had all been born in the capital, Ty Lee hadn't shown much interest in running along the poorly cleaned streets, and Azula had spent most of her time in the Palace. Mai had looked to the streets as a means of escape from her overbearing father and worrywart mother.

As she ascended the worn stone steps rising along the caldera's vertical rim, the wind picked up, and she saw a figure in bright robes flash by her, heading upwards towards her favorite ledge. After another minute of walking she peeked her head over the top and saw a boy, whom she immediately recognized as the Avatar, sitting cross-legged and looking outwards towards the ocean.

"Avatar?"

At the sound of his title, Aang jumped, fixing her with wide-open eyes before recognition flashed and he took a fighting stance.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a wary tone.

"I might as the same. Relax. I'm Mai, Zuko's-"

And then Mai froze, tongue-twisted and suddenly flustered.

Aang seemed to understand.

"Zuko told us all about you," he began. Aang patted a 'clean' patch of rock next to him and beckoned her with a gesture. "I saved a spot for you."

Mai smiled slightly- uncomfortably at the boy's overt friendliness- but she acquiesced, closing the gap in several short strides and lifting her robes slightly as she sat down.

In the east, the Sun continued to ascend the sky, bringing another day of peace for the world, but not for those who had brought it about.

* * *

Review Responses:

Charlie'Rocker:

Thanks for reviewing- I'm glad that you think I'm portraying Aang in-character.

70oda:

Good to know I struck the right notes for making this go somewhat deeper in an emotional sense. As far as OOC-ness goes, I'm trying to bend as little as possible- by changing her decisions and romantic inclinations, but not her personaility or general traits. She's more impulsive here, and her feelings for Aang and Zuko are different- but not completely so, from canon. Of course this will all be revealed as the story progresses.

As far as Mai and Zuko go, it's just a combination of factors- repeated abandonement, perceived deception and the public nature of their confrontation that makes Mai more unwilling to talk.

Malevolent Dark Reflection:

I think I tried to create a 'perfect storm' for things to happen as badly as they did here- Katara and Aang's confrontation (seemingly resolved to Katara but not to Aang) and Zuko and Katara's short-lived confrontation. Some things have to be sudden in order to force real change (and minimize the conscious decision-making in these events, in order to keep the characters' conscious decisions as in-character as possible.) Thanks for pointing out the unspoken dialogue between Aang and Katara - that was something that I worked on a bit, and I wasn't sure if I was being too overt in presenting it.

SuperNova: Thanks for the review, I hope you enjoy the story!


	9. Aftermath

A/N: This story is taking so long- its still only the second night after Sozin's comet. I guess I have a hard time telling a story without this much detail. By the way, I like short reviews. That way my responses can be short as well ;) I mean I also like long reviews as well. Each has its own joys.

Disclaimer: A:TLA and characters belong to Mike, Bryan and Nickelodeon et al.

**Aftermath**

The relatively barren ledge, despite its lack of foliage and the debris strewn all around it, nevertheless offered a sort of haven for the two souls who occupied it.

After Mai had taken a seat, the two of them had sat there for several minutes, staring idly at the ocean, the waves mere ripples on the water's dimpled surface.

Each of them was somber in their own way, but perhaps they could find solace in their shared experience.

"I guess it wasn't enough." Aang said finally, half inquiring and half stating.

But Mai only answered with another question. "It never is, it is?"

The distant calls of seagulls answered them.

* * *

"Come on, Zuko."

Torn between sympathy and anger, Sokka nevertheless gently nudged Zuko towards the open palace gates. All around them, the cacophony of whispers and pointed gasps filled the air with the sensation of flying rumors.

Suki and Toph trailed behind wordlessly, but when Toph felt the familiar vibration of patterning sandals she stopped.

"Katara," she growled when the waterbender came into hearing range.

"Come on," Suki insisted. "Let's get inside."

After they turned the corner, the guards shut the gates behind them and Zuko sat down shakily on a intricately carved stone bench.

Katara ignored Toph's glare and gazed sympathetically at Zuko, who continued to hold his head in his hand.

"This is the worst day ever," he said with a groaning sigh.

"And it's all your fault." Sokka added unsympathetically.

"I know."

"Sokka, lay off." Katara warned. "It was-"

"-As much your fault Katara." Toph finished. "You've haven't exactly been nice to Aang _or_ Zuko. I don't get-"

"I get it, ok! I'm trying to fix everything but I can't if you keep judging me!" she cried hotly.

After a moment, Suki piped up. "Did you talk to Aang?"

"Yeah. He apologized. I know he'll be alright," she replied, sounding as if she were without a hint of doubt.

Toph scoffed at Katara. "You really think that?"

"Why wouldn't he? Aang's never let anything get him down for long. You know that."

"That's because he always looked up to you!" Toph bit out. "I wonder how he feels about you now."

Katara put her hands on her hips, readying herself to deliver a true tongue-lashing. "You can stop trying to make my feel guilty, Toph. I made up with Aang and I don't need you butting in!"

But Toph wasn't backing down either. "Do you really think Aang will just turn around and forgive you? I don't think you get how much he-"

"I'm going to repeat this one more time. This is none of your business-"

"Yes it is! Aang is my best friend and I'm not going to see him get hurt when-"

"Aang and I are best friends!" Katara retorted.

"Yes, you're right!" Toph exclaimed, more exasperated than spiteful. "He trusted you with everything! He never told me- or any of us- half the stuff he told you!"

"So what exactly is your point?" Katara asked. "Because if we're done with this conversation-"

"He needs you Katara! I know I'm being blunt about it, but you can't just dump him for Zuko."

"I'm can still be his friend." Katara replied. "He said as much. And I'm _not _dumping him for Zuko-"

"Do you think that's how he sees it?"

"That's up to him to decide!"

"Did you apologize to him?"

The waterbender glared uselessly at Toph. "He's the one who kept pushing me!" She thought back to their previous confrontation on Ember Island, on the theater balcony. "You remember the play on Ember Island?" Katara continued without waiting for an answer, "When I said I was confused, he kissed me! He _forced_ himself on me- and he's lucky I forgave him!" she finished with a wild swing of her arms.

Toph was finally becoming sick of the arguing. While she was certainly holding her own in their verbal exchange, she was beginning to see that Katara was feeling defensive - and it was useless to push her any further.

_This stuff is between you and him. _

"Whatever," she snipped. "I'm going to go find Aang."

* * *

Overlooking the sparkling sapphire ocean, Aang and Mai sat silently on the weather-worn rock formations.

Understandably, Aang was not his usual talkative self- and with Mai in an equally somber mood, their stay was completely devoid of any chatter.

He mused silently, taking in the breathtaking scene without joy when the bright blue reminded him of _her _eyes.

Sadness, depression- indeed any kind of melancholy had usually far beyond him. But he wasn't the same kid full of infectious laughter who had woke up grinning among strangers in a foreign land, in a time so apart from his own.

He had been the youngest, and truthfully, the most of a child among their group. But in a year, when everyone else had honed their combat skills and gone through journeys of self-discovery, Aang had grown into his new role- but it had been too late.

_I'll always be a child to her. _

Now Katara saw him as nothing but a friend, and _Zuko _as something more.

Envy and frustration flared, and he ground his teeth.

For now the pain was too great, so he indulged his self-pity for the moment.

* * *

A messenger approached Zuko from a small temple off to the side.

"The Fire Sages wish to prepare for your coronation, my Prince."

He stood there silently for a moment before Zuko got up. As he stood up, Zuko moved his bangs to coverhis eyes so his friends and subjects couldn't see the tears there.

"I'm ready."

When Zuko left and Toph headed off to find Aang, Sokka turned towards Katara with an angry scowl on his face.

"What's wrong with you?"

Katara was exhausted by now at the seemingly unending inquisition, but this being her brother she knew that he wouldn't let it rest until he had an answer.

So, she sighed and took a seat for what was sure to be a long conversation. Suki, unsure of what to do, took a seat a few feet away on the bench, equidistant between the two of them.

"I honestly don't know." Katara replied. "I guess I was just impulsive when I kissed Zuko. I really didn't feel anything...for him before a few days ago."

"Really? Is that what you told Aang on the balcony?" Sokka retorted. "He asked me if I thought you liked Zuko- and I told him no, because I thought that was the _truth_!"

"I was confused!"

"You seemed to care so much about Aang! Everyone could see that-"

"-well, I saw him as a friend!"

"You were so affectionate with him! You were always hugging or kissing him- more than me, your own brother!" _Not that I wanted to you to, er...hug or kiss me, _Sokka added mentally. _Ugh. _

"Well..." Katara trailed off, sounding unsure. "Maybe I saw him like a son?"

A moment of awkward silence followed that particular announcement. Sokka merely shook his head.

"You're just making up excuses for yourself now. You know that you _did _not see Aang that way! I saw how you danced with him in the cave."

"Ok...I admit, maybe I liked Aang a little."

Sokka grunted.

"But I also like Zuko." Katara's voice was full of admiration. "I mean, you didn't see the way he jumped in front of me when Azula shot me with lightning!"

"Are you serious? Is _that _the whole reason-"

"Well, Zuko _is _more handsome and taller, and I mean what girl wouldn't like his-"

Sokka was gagging at his sister's fawning descriptions, both from the perspective of being Aang's best guy friend and Katara's brother.

"Alright, that's enough." He held up a crutch and pointed it at Katara, who backed away slightly. "I didn't talk to you to hear about Zuko's..._whatever._ Just don't rush into anything, will you?"

Katara nodded slightly. But beneath the facade of calm there was doubt.

* * *

When Sokka and Suki went to find a professional to cast his leg, Katara was left sitting alone on the stone bench with an empty courtyard to herself. Relieved at the end of the questions, at least for now, she finally began to pick apart her own thoughts in depth.

"I thought I'd find you two here."

"Really?"

"No." she replied with a devious smirk. She raised herself on a rock ledge and jumped onto the rim of the volcano, landing with a relatively loud crash at Aang's side.

"Shh." Mai whispered.

Toph grumbled but took a seat and leaned in to Aang's ear.

"Are you alright? You're like _gloom girl_ over there."

Mai, being well accomplished in overhearing whispers, snorted and stood up.

"I'll see you guys at the coronation ceremony?"

"Huh?" Aang and Toph asked.

"It's tomorrow. You guys should get ready."

With a nod from each of the benders, Mai clambered over the edge and descended the stairs to the street below.

"What's _her _problem?" Toph inquired derisively.

"I guess they were really close."

"I guess they _were_ pretty far along. You left right before they remet, but even _I _could feel her staring Zuko down. He was begging for forgiveness before she slapped him."

"Hmm." he replied, sounding uninterested.

"So, anyways Twinkletoes, how are you doing? I know you're down, but at least you faced it head on, right? It's better that you found out now rather than later."

"Yup." Aang replied rather lethargically, continuing to stare with an almost blank expression into the light blue sky.

"C'mon, you need to pick out new clothes for the coronation. You'll get to wear official Avatar robes and everything!"

Aang knew, of course, that Toph couldn't care less about clothes and appearances in general, given that she was blind. But he appreciated her attempt at lifting his spirits.

"Alright." With a widening grin (and a trace of apprehension on Toph's face) he suddenly grabbed Toph with one strong arm.

"Hold on!"

"No! Aang, don't-"

Despite her protests, she clung on tightly to him as he sprung open his glider and leapt into the air.

Her hysterical yells turned to laughter as Aang's mouth, which was wide open for airbending, swallowed a dragonfly, and he hacked desperately to rid himself of the buzzing insect.

* * *

How had it all gone so wrong?

_They must both hate me now. I made Zuko break up with his girlfriend...and Aang...well, he said he was really alright earlier, but we both know that he wasn't, not really. But there's nothing that I can really do for him. Neither of them, really. They have a right to be mad at me. _

Katara sighed and got up, beginning to pace around the wide expanse of the courtyard.

_Who do I like more? _

_Aang's been my best friend for almost a year now. He always asks me for advice...and I've sometimes come to him for help. I'm the only one who can bring him out of the Avatar state. But...recently things haven't been going smoothly between us. After he kissed me at the Invasion- it was a shock really, but things just weren't the same. It was like he opened up something new between us. Then we argued when I wanted to find Yon Rha...maybe he was right, maybe not, but it was my own business! _

_**But he didn't stop you- he did let you use Appa. And he was right in the end; killing Yon Rha would've been wrong. Doesn't a good friend deserve a chance to voice their opinion?**_

_What about the play on Ember Island? He had insecurity issues, when he kissed me against my will? He had insecurity issues about..._

Katara suddenly stopped pacing and frowned.

_...me and Zuko. I guess it must look pretty bad to him that I decided to tell him that I liked Zuko right after he defeated the Firelord. _

_I told him, "Now is not the right time." He's not going to say it outright, but he probably feels like I lied to him so that he could defeat the Firelord. _

_And I guess, In a way, I did. Even though I was confused, I still must've known that I liked him- how much, I can't say. It's hard to separate out him as a person and him as an Avatar. He's given me so much hope, and been so selfless in fighting the Fire Nation. He's taught me to have fun even in the middle of a war, and brought a smile to my face when I needed it most. He's been loyal and honest to me the whole time. Of course he __**deserves**__ love more than anyone else...but that doesn't mean that __**I **__need to love him. That can't be forced. _

_What about Zuko? _

_I've only known him for a short while, really. He's brave and loyal, too. He's had to struggle more with good and evil than the rest of us. When he joined our group at first, I hated him- and I really was going to kill him, if he tried to hurt Aang again. I mean, even now I sometimes wonder what went on in his mind when he did some of the things he did- not letting me heal his own Uncle, most of all. Did he really hate us that much that he would risk letting Iroh die? _

_And then what happened beneath Ba Sing Se...that's something that we will never forget. I forgive him- but how much is enough? I still shiver every time I recall the look on his face- the way he stood at Azula's side when she shot Aang. _

_But he's redeemed himself, _she thought, despite the cautionary voice in her head admonished her for her wishful thinking.

_**What do you expect this to result in, anyways? You and Zuko can never be together, as long as he's the Firelord. Don't be naive. **_

_That much is true. _

She wrapped her robes closer around, shivering in the empty courtyard.

_Now what?_

_I guess I need to apologize to everyone, most of all to Aang and Zuko...and Mai._

* * *

The tailor held up a worn flaxen cord and wrapped it around him.

"You just took my measurements a month ago! Surely you don't have to do it again!"

"It's standard practice, Prince Zuko."

Zuko sighed and held up his arms.

After repeating the motion several times to completely catalogue his lord's dimensions, the tailor left and was replaced by a barber.

"Your hair is much too long."

Despite his exasperation, Zuko stood still as the rougher edges of his glossy hair were curtailed and his sideburns were trimmed.

_Who's even ordering all of this? _he wondered. Unbeknownst to him, the recently banished servants were trying to curry his favor and continue in their roles as if nothing had happened at all.

* * *

"I don't think I really need anything this fancy," Aang explained hastily to the man in front of him.

"But it is made of the finest silk!"

_Well, that's the problem, isn't it? I don't wear leather and sure don't wear silk. Pretty as it is, thousands of silkworms were slaughtered for it. _

"I'm, er- allergic to silk."

Toph rolled her sightless eyes as the shopkeeper frowned, scratching his stubbled chin.

"I've never heard of- ah, whatever," he muttered. "Would you be interested in cotton-wool cloths? They're my best after the silks."

"Sure."

From behind a padlocked display case, the man removed a neatly folded golden-colored robe.

Even as he admired the way it caught the afternoon sunlight, Aang remembered with a start that he had no way of paying for it.

"That's nice," he commented.

The shopkeeper smiled and unfurled it with a flourish, holding it up to give him a better view.

"You can have it for free," he announced, eyeing the name of his shop embroidered on the inside collar.

"Are you sure?" Aang glanced quickly at Toph and whispered into her ear, "Could you pay for me? I'll find a way to make it up."

"He said it was free. Just take it, Twinkletoes."

Turning back towards the man, he bowed respectfully and gingerly held the robe by its corners before draping it over a shoulder and tucking it in about his waist.

"I really like it." He said, smiling widely.

"It's really an honor to serve you, Avatar." The man smiled back and closed and locked the display case with a neat *_click*_ as he returned to his seat behind his counter. As they exited the shop, Aang turned to Toph, a question already on his lips. "Toph, you're sure you don't-"

"Really, it's alright! I don't need special clothes." she said with an air of finality.

"Alright...if you say so."

Together, they wound their way back to the palace.

* * *

As night fell, another airship, one holding more of the Avatar's friends, arrived in the Fire Nation. Zuko ordered the war prisoners freed from the prison camps surrounding the capital in time for the coronation the next day.

While Mai visited her repatriated family (called back to explain her actions at the Boiling Rock), Ty Lee decided to visit Azula in prison. The guards ogled her appreciatively without remorse, but when one of them tried to sweet-talk the young acrobat he found himself lying limply on the floor, slack-jawed and drooling in the literal sense.

They stayed away from her after that, and let her in to see Azula without question.

"Azula?" she asked softly, her voice losing the bravado she had shown to the guards and instead taking on a tone of sincerity and concern.

A dead silence answered her; neither hysterical laughter nor terrified sobbing filled the cold, dank cell.

Trepidation gripped her as she slowly approached the cell. She imagined pale white fingers suddenly thrusting through the bars to grip her throat, or the princess' face twisted into a scowl and hissing at her.

In her heart she could hear Azula accusing her of betrayal in a voice seemingly pitiable, a quality born of calculated desperation, or perhaps turning into a raving rant punctuated by uncontrolled firebending.

When she peered onto the floor, illuminated by the dim light of a single charcoal torch, however, she only saw the Princess sprawled out on her back, a tense expression on her face the only sign of discomfort.

"Sleep well, Azula." she whispered as she gingerly crept back towards the door. A reckoning would have to wait until Azula had gained her needed rest- "beauty sleep," Ty Lee had once called it.

* * *

As the sun sank below the western ridge of the volcanic caldera, the light slowly drained from the sky, but the capital remained lit by thousands of glowing paper lanterns, with the Royal Palace the most brightly lit area in the city.

Zuko had given up on finding Mai for the day, and instead resolved to find her tomorrow. For the moment he sat on porch outside of his old bedroom. The rest of the Gaang was bunked in the same building in bedrooms along an adjoining hallway.

Katara returned first, her bright blue eyes a welcome sight for his weary heart.

"Hi."

She smiled and waved, and took a seat by his side. Her voice twisted with the obvious effort as she began to apologize to him.

"I'm..sorry about what I did...putting you in an awkward position. I'm sorry that Mai broke up with you."

"Really?" Zuko replied, somewhat incredulous. Everything was fine until she said she was sorry that Mai had broken up with him. The last part sounded dubious to him, especially given her actions that spoke to the contrary.

"Yes..." Katara answered cautiously, her conciliatory tone already in danger of disappearing.

"But you don't want me and Mai to be together."

"That's not a fair question to ask," Katara protested.

"Oh. So we're talking about _fairness_ now, are we? Cause-"

"Augh!" Katara bit out. "Can't you just accept an apology when it's given?"

"Well...I don't think you need to apologize to me as much as you have to Mai." Zuko turned towards her with downcast, sad look on his face. "And Aang. We sort of messed things up together."

"I guess you're right. But I already apologized to Aang."

Zuko shrugged. "You do know he had a giant crush on you the whole time?"

"I don't need _you _reminding me," she retorted sarcastically.

"I mean, it's not like I was being ambiguous-"

"And you're saying that I was?" Katara asked in an icy tone.

"Well, I was with Mai..."

"Why do you keep talking about her?" Katara sniffed. "You're making me feel like you don't want to be with me."

"I'm just using it as a comparison," he explained. "To point out that you weren't giving him any clear signs and he's going to feel like he was led on."

"He was seeing something that wasn't there." Katara answered nonchalantly. "I always saw him as a younger brother."

"Are you sure? I'm being honest about me and-"

"I'm telling you that there was _nothing,_" Katara huffed. "Why do you care so much anyways?"

"I'm just worried that..." Zuko paused mid-sentence before the other shoe dropped- "I keep having this lingering suspicion that you might've, _ah, _at one time-"

"You're unbelievable! Of all the people-"

"-I just want the truth, Katara! If we're going to do this together-"

"Forget it!" An indignant inferno was boiling over in unrelenting waves, and her earlier apology had been long lost. "We're done!"

In a single stride, she closed the distance to the door and disappeared down the hallway, her sandals silent against the ornate rug.

At that moment, Sokka and Suki stumbled in, followed by Aang and Toph, who asked "What happened here?"

Zuko sighed and stood up. "Katara's crazy," he complained in a weary voice. "I tried to say sorry to her-"

"You were asking about stuff that's none of your business!" came Katara's voice from down the hallway.

"It isn't?" Zuko replied incredulously.

"Can you both shut up?" Sokka was scowling with what could only be described as simmering irritation. "Us four-" he pointed to himself and then Suki, Aang and Toph- "need a good night's rest. And so do you." he finished, jabbing a finger into Zuko's chest.

While Suki helped Sokka up the short flight of stairs, Toph saw fit to chime in as well. "Sort this stuff out tomorrow," she added.

Aang silently went into his own room and shut the door.

Fuming, pacing back and forth in the dim lantern-lit bedroom furnished with endless hues of red, Katara finally settled on looking at herself in the mirror.

_Don't you realize you're just hurting everyone with your anger? _

Unsure of what to do for the moment, she turned away after a moment and flopped down on the bed, staring at patterns of dancing flames textured all over the ceiling.

"Can I come in?" Suki's voice threaded from the door, half-open to allow measure of relief from the oppressive heat.

"Yeah."

Suki came in and sat down on a cushioned stool.

"I'm not going to judge you," she began. "I know things can be complicated- especially love."

"Love?" Katara repeated listlessly. "I've hurt Aang so much...and made Zuko mad at me for what happened between him and Mai."

"Mistakes happen," Suki sighed. "What's important is learning from them."

"What do I do, Suki?" Katara asked, seemingly lost in her own haze of thoughts.

"Just wait for things to settle down." she suggested. "Today was kind of crazy."

"Haha. That's for sure." Katara smiled slightly before settling back down into an ambivalent expression.

"Sleep well?" she called asked as she made her way to the door.

"Yeah," she lied.

Katara felt the smile of the Kyoshi warrior, but it didn't penetrate the fog of gloom. Sure, the conversation had made her feel somewhat reassured that not _everyone _hated her, but the facts remained, and her actions still stood.

She got up and tied her hair into a loose braid, somewhat disgusted at the amount of sheer sweat breaking out on her brow, but nevertheless stepping into the hallway quietly in the near total-darkness.

* * *

Kneading the forehead- particularly, the sinuses and brow, helped Zuko to alleviate some of the headache.

_I might need to get some herbs for this, _he thought wryly. _Or get some less crazy friends. _

He frowned at a errant thought.

_Not that I have many to choose from. _

He made his way to a water fountain, newly installed with state-of-the-art plumbing, and bent down to take a sip when the _*creak_* of sneaky-like footsteps echoed down the hallway.

_Huh? _

Zuko licked the errant moisture from his lips and conjured a small flame in his hand.

"Who's there?"

"Me." Katara replied.

She stepped into his view, forehead glistening with perspiration and hair tied back, sweat-stained robes sticking too close-

Zuko shut his eyes briefly in a moment of self-control and turned away.

"What are you doing out here?" His voice came out somewhat harsher- strained, even- than he intended.

"Just taking a walk," she said, unwilling to give away more. In the dark hallway devoid of the others, Katara suddenly felt a mixture of attraction and fear towards him, and she carefully skirted the question. "Goodnight," she said quickly before striding past him rather hurriedly. She meant to say, _I didn't mean what I said earlier, _but she was too tongue-tied to manage that much.

Staring at the water fountain with an unnaturally intense gaze, Zuko suddenly jerked his head up as if remembering something.

"Goodnight to you too," he muttered towards her retreating figure.

Then he bent down for another sip.

* * *

"Go away," came Sokka's voice.

"Oops. Sorry, wrong room," Katara replied.

Sokka grunted unhappily and shifted in his bed. "Can you let it rest for today? The rest of us need our sleep."

Katara rolled her eyes, but held back from a retort.

"Goodnight, Sokka."

"Night 'Sis."

By process of elimination, she knew that the last door on the male side had to be Aang's. Taking a deep breath, she knocked twice and waited for a response.

"Come in," came the muffled reply.

Katara smiled, feeling giddy at the unexpected openness of the Avatar, even after everything that had gone down that day.

_Maybe things will be alright. _

The door swung about soundlessly and she stepped in. The room was completely dark, except for the ethereal glow of moonlight peeking through rice paper-thin dividers.

Aang sat in a lotus position and was staring straight at her, his eyes almost luminescent against the dark backdrop the rest of his body was draped in.

Suddenly she felt extremely nervous- and she stumbled backwards slightly, surprised at the intense gaze and the absolute stillness of his posture.

"Can I sit?"

"Yeah," he answered softly, the voice not quite matching its owner. He wasn't really surprised at Katara coming to visit hi, given that he could hear her checking door after door in the hallway.

"Aang," she began in an affectionate voice, "I...know I already apologized for what I said to you today. I get this feeling that you..."

Aang sighed and unfolded his legs, curling them up to his chest instead. "What happens between you and Zuko," he said without any hesitation at mentioning Zuko's name, "is not really my business. I get it." He looked down for a moment at the shadows swaying on the floor.

"That doesn't change the way I feel about you." he looked up, searching for understanding.

Katara nodded, and would've smiled if not for the powerful undercurrent she could feel in Aang's words. She felt off-balance somehow.

"It's just the way things are," he continued. "But that's not your fault."

"I guess," Katara admitted, feeling the guilt beginning to settle in again. "I know you're an understanding person, so I wonder if I can ask you for some advice." She paused before adding, "It might be an awkward subject."

Aang shrugged. "I'm fine."

"It's about me and Zuko."

Aang's face tightened slightly, but he didn't make a sound.

Taking his silence as acceptance, Katara continued. "I keep on butting heads with him."

"I'm not surprised. You always had it out for him from the start," Aang commented.

"I know. It just feels like...we're stuck shouting at each other all the time, you know?" She gestured idly with her hands.

"Think about it this way: How would you feel if you were in his shoes?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's as frustrated as you are. It was a lot to have happen in one day, you know?" He stopped to consider his thoughts. "Both of you have really...ah, _assertive_ personalities." he concluded diplomatically. _That's an understatement._

Katara sighed and began to pace the room. "You don't hate Zuko, do you?"

"Not yet," Aang joked.

Katara smiled and rolled her eyes. "C'mon, be serious."

"Well, I obviously feel jealous, but you know that."

"Oh," Katara said, feeling somewhat relieved. The last thing she wanted was for there to be hostility between the two of them.

"This is sort of awkward telling you...but thanks for letting me know." She came to a standstill. "About all of this," she clarified.

"No problem." Aang smiled.

"Give me a chance?"

"What do you mean?" Aang asked, feeling an odd feeling in his throat. _A chance at what? _

"Me and Zuko," she said quietly. "I know this is really unfair of me to ask-"

"You're not going to lose me as a friend," Aang interrupted, despite the sinking feeling that he had been having quite often as of late. "If you're worried about that."

"No-" Katara began to stammer, feeling the nervousness return. "I mean that..." _I don't know if things will work out with Zuko- _

But she knew in her heart that she was being selfish again, taking advantage of her best friend, so she covered up, replacing her uneasiness with an unconvincing artificial smile.

"-that'd be great."

"Alright." Aang shifted his legs and sat up. "Goodnight Katara."

She smiled back at him, her expression a somewhat bittersweet one that reminded him of how she had left him in the courtyard earlier that day.

A shiver raced through him as she closed the door.

_I keep getting my hopes up, _he surmised. _For all the talk, things still aren't the same. _

He reassumed his meditative pose, trying in vain to reach his past lives like he had when on the back of the lion turtle.

_I guess I'll just have to wait until the fall equinox, then. I'm not traveling to the Northern Water Tribe just to talk to Roku._

* * *

Charlie'Rocker: Drama is an important part of my story! Good to see I'm delivering.

70oda: Aw, but you read the beginning, didn't you? You already know how it ends. Of course that isn't the whole story (more stuff happens after the wedding, and new perspectives and emotions will open up) but it's a closed story arc. What is new in my story, of course, is Aang's perspective that is always glossed over.

SuperNova: Thanks, I was worried I was overdoing things a bit. Of course, this is only the beginning of Mai's role in the story.

anomino: Gracias? I don't speak spanish (me no hablo espanol?) but I do understand 'me gusta mucho'. By the way, how are you reading this? Google translate? xD Or can you read english? (Tu hablos ingles?)

invitado: Gracias to you too. See above ^ as well. :P

To all: The story is just getting started, so buckle up.


	10. Morning of Coronation

A/N: Another short update to this story, to let you guys know that I am still here. I was tempted to write an "author note" chapter...but bleh.

Disclaimer: Avatar: The Last Airbender (A:TLA) belongs to Nickelodeon, Mike, Bryan et al.

Morning of Coronation

The Sun rose again, a mere moment or two later than it did the previous day, into its throne atop the heavens, looking down at a world once more at peace. Much like a cauldron, the rim of the volcanic city simmered with the heat already rising off the ground in rolling waves.

Zuko cracked open an eye, his pupil matching the color of the flaming overlord whose power he and many others bore with pride.

Fire.

But as he rolled drearily out of bed and cleared the fog contorting his thoughts, his mind was neither philosophizing on the profound circumstances, nor reminiscing and reflecting on the ruminations of the day, but rather-

"Hey, quit banging on my door!"

Across the hallway, Sokka was also awakening, albeit with a more assertive, grumbling stomach. After stumbling to the sink and using the surprisingly cool water to rinse his teeth and splash his face, he made his way back to his bedchamber just as a knock sounded from his door.

"Breakfast is served!" called an indistinct voice, partially muffled by the thick wooden door.

"Come in!" he yelled, half-yawning as he said it.

A servant he didn't recognize carried in a dazzling array of foods- woven bamboo mats stacked with bundles of tender buckwheat noodles, numerous salty soy sauces, spicy chili oils and sour vinegar sauces, delicately arranged balls of rice expertly sprinkled with seasoned fish flakes and the odd sesame seed- and Sokka, stomach grumbling already, mumbled a hasty 'thanks' and stuffed it all into his mouth, urgently mixing the noodles together with a pair of intricately carved chopsticks.

'Mph-This is delicious!"

The man only smiled and poured him a cup of tea from a porcelain pot.

Aang looped the end of his robe into a fold and over his shoulder, smiling at the fabric's unexpected smoothness.

_There, _he thought, and hung his wooden pendant carving about his neck.

His stomach groaned unhappily for the umpteenth time that day - he had gotten up earlier, sitting quietly as dawn turned to daylight and the dreary indigo-black horizon ripened to pale blue.

_Everything will be alright, _he kept telling himself. He knew that he still had his numerous friends, the closest of which were like a family to him, and his companions, Appa and Momo, as well as the wisdom of past Avatars, access to the Spirit World and the teachings of his people.

But every time he told himself that everything would be alright, his mind would conjure thoughts of _her, _and all of the hopes that he had once had, and the wishes he used to count like stars in the sky, and the shared smiles he plucked like gemstones from the rubble-

But once the dreams subsided and reality returned to him, he could only shudder, eyes bulging and hands shaking as if he had peeled a ripe fruit only to find withered flesh within.

She had been awake almost the entire night- half of it, making preparations for her parents to attend the coronation. They no longer had servants after her impromptu betrayal at the Boiling Rock, and had been confined to virtual house arrest under constant guard for the past few weeks.

"Will you be going with Zuko?" his mother had asked in a bright voice so blissfully unaware of the gossip already flying about the city.

_If they don't know about it now, they will soon, _Mai thought grimly. Ever the practical one, she helped her mother down into a reclining chair, so she would be sitting when her daughter announced an unwelcome surprise.

"He broke up with me," Mai said calmly, looking at each of her parents in turn to make sure the point sunk in.

"WHAT?" her father roared, reaching, fumbling for his cane as he stumbled to his feet.

She felt the bitterness choking her and the cloying, sick feeling in her stomach, but she refused to give in, or to cry, or give her parents any more reason to become even more anxious and suffer insomnia.

"It's alright," she lied.

But she had underestimated her father's righteous anger welling up, usually suppressed in a man who had gotten used to swallowing his pride to advance his career. Up until now, he had been rather ambivalent about Zuko's character - he had only met the boy a handful of times, before he had been banished.

He stood up suddenly- too suddenly, it seemed, as he fainted almost right away. His wife and daughter caught him by both arms and laid him down gently onto the couch.

A few feet away, Tom-Tom tottered up, looking at his sleeping father with apprehensive eyes and a worried pout.

"Dada?"

She was sweating when she awoke, hyperventilating even as she laid completely still on a luxurious bed framed by exotic imported lumber carved into dancing flames and prancing dragons.

**Staring into pond, Katara lightly skimmed her fingers across the silver moon-lit surface, enjoying the feeling of familiarity with native element. For a moment, she continued to smile, almost lazily, at the shapeless clouds reflected in the pond that shimmered with each ripple of the obsidian-black water, before the sound of rustling leaves emanated from the woods behind her. **

"**Who are you?" she called. **

**The figure, dressed in faded, faintly yellow robes, took a step closer, emerging into the moonlight that illuminated them both. He then grabbed his hood by two hands and uncovered his face. **

"**Aang?" **

"**I came for your wedding." **

"**My wedding?" **

"**Yes." **

"**What-" **

"**You and Zuko." **

**She felt a hazy confusion wash over her at the mention of his name. **_**Zuko? **_

"**But...I- what's going on? Where am I?"**

"**Don't you recognize it? It's the turtleduck pond." **

**Katara spun around and fixed Aang with an icy glare, feeling her frustration flare at the unfamiliar environment and Aang's intransigence. "This isn't funny, you know." **

"**I'm serious." He turned to the side to reveal a man standing behind him, dressed in red and black robes. **

**Zuko stepped forward, an open box in hand, and lifted a flame emblem headpiece from the the cushion. **

"**This isn't funny guys!" Katara protested, beginning to panic at their unamused gazes. **

**Wordlessly, Zuko placed a hand on her head and pulled at her hair with a force just shy of being rough. In a single motion, he bound some of it into a topknot and slipped the crown on. **

**Aang then fixed her with a sad, eerily familiar gaze- where had she seen it?- and then, ever so slowly, he turned his back to her and walked away. **

"**Goodbye, Aang." Zuko whispered. "I'm sorry for everything." **

_**What is he talking about? **_**Katara wondered. But with each step he took closer to the silvery, iridescent turtleduck pond, an unsettling sensation began to smother her. **

**While Zuko turned his head down towards the ground, she continued to stare at the back of Aang's pale robes, which appeared almost white in the moonlight, with a degree of disbelief. Even as Aang continued at a steady pace, Katara rapidly closed the distance between them and reached out to grasp his shoulders with trembling, sweating fingers. **

**They passed right through his body. All at once, Katara became hysterical. **

"**What are you doing? Aang!" **

**He continued walking as if he didn't hear her. As if he couldn't hear her. **

**But then, all of a sudden, he came to the edge of the pond, which had now appeared black and depthless. **

**Paradoxically, his ethereal robes fluttered with the wind, and then he spoke. **

"**I'm sorry too." **

**Without looking at her, he tilted forward, and despite her desperate, clawing fingers, she only grasped at air, unable to keep him from falling into the water. **

**The calm surface only rippled slightly, as if mocking her as it swallowed Aang up. She hesitated for a moment before plunging her hand into the water. **

**But, alas! It was too, too bone-chillingly cold, wracking her nerves with a sensation that travelled up her arm and threatened to freeze her entire body solid, and she instinctively pulled her hand back with a pained gasp. **

**Watching the water apprehensively for any sign of life, she was at first confused when a hazy cloud of white powder suddenly appeared. But then she saw something floating in the water- a wooden pendant- and she looked closer, quickly recognizing the trio of engraved spirals. **

**Realizing what the white powder was, she felt a terror unlike anything she had felt before- **

And then she woke up screaming.

Review Responses:

SuperNova:

Yeah. Sort of unavoidable though. I guess we'll see what happens throughout the rest of the book. (So keep reading!)

Malevolent Dark Reflection:

Yeah, Aang desperately needs that. And of course, Katara doesn't get just how deeply Aang feels about her, which sort of sucks for him.

Guest:

Thanks. I'm happy when I make people cry (when I'm writing a tragedy, that is. Well, actually, I don't _enjoy _making you cry...but you know what I mean.)


	11. A Reign of Ten Thousand Years

Better late than never, blah blah blah. I have to read happy fluffy or otherwise uplifting stories as I right this to keep myself from becoming too downcast. I'm on a _foreign _vacation through late July, so updates will depend on what I do. Wat do now? Read!

**A Reign of Ten Thousand Years**

The salty taste of the ocean lingered in the air, and the breeze felt cool against the skin. Despite the calming visage, however, the crowd gathered in the Royal Palace's central plaza murmured excitedly in anticipation of the announcements to come.

Behind the maroon red curtains, the Avatar sat cross-legged against the back of doorway leading to the entranceway. Dressed in his cotton robe and with his wooden pendant around his neck, Aang stared straight down the hallway, which ended in a doorway blocked by red curtains.

The distant murmur of the crowd outside and the frantic footsteps of servants making last-minute preparations filled the air, but his mind was mostly blank in a deliberate attempt to try to keep his wandering thoughts away.

For the time being he found it advantageous to distract himself with the patterns of the well-worn rug.

* * *

"I can't believe it's over." Zuko said, standing in front of him and shifting on his feet. He paused as if wanting to say something more, but after another moment he sighed and idly scratched his topknot.

"Yeah..." Aang responded quietly.

"Well," Zuko continued after a moment, "let's not keep them waiting." He extended a hand to the Avatar, who took hold of it after a brief hesitation.

* * *

"As it has been from time immemorial, and continued down through the ages, another descendant of Agni ascends the Dragon Throne. So begins the first year of the reign of Firelord Zuko!"

The sage firmly affixed a headpiece to Zuko's topknot and tugged at his shoulders with time-worn hands.

"All hail his majesty!"

All throughout the courtyard the ranks of Fire Nation nobles bowed deeply in unison, repeating the motion several times, chanting praises to the newly crowned sovereign of their nation.

"Long life, your majesty!"

"May your reign last ten thousand years!"

The flame-affixed banners fluttered in the wind as Zuko slowly stepped forward from the terrace and down towards the courtyard, stopping halfway on the stair steps, taking in the warmth of the sun shining down.

He held up his hand, trying to establish some semblance of decorum as the gathered audience loudly cheered and celebrated his crowning.

In a rather unassuming voice, he simply thanked the people for giving him their trust and the chance to lead the Fire Nation.

"Thank You all, for trusting me...with something that is so important. I will not disappoint you."

After Zuko concluded his short coronation speech which called furthermore for peace and harmony and forgiveness and a thousand other terms of reconciliation, he shifted slightly to the side and let Aang walk up beside him, where they stood, together but not quite shoulder-to-shoulder.

Zuko's gaze darted around the various people gathered before him now - many of which he didn't recognize, taking in their faces for future reference.

Despite the picture of unity they presented, there was a sense of uneasiness, especially in the way Aang stared blankly straight ahead instead of smiling at his friends as they had expected.

When Katara looked up, she noticed that Aang was wearing the wooden pendant - the very same one as from her dream - and she was seized by a combination of shock and fear.

It was a joyous occasion, and the crowd cheered wildly for the two heroes, who seemed to have an unbreakable bond, having fought together to vanquish evil and restore peace.

The Sun, now at the apex of its ascent, shone down proudly. Auspicious numbers of swans took flight in the air, filling the space with song.

But Zuko only continued to look anxiously at the crowd before turning his gaze, half questioning, half appraising to Aang, who only stared at the sky, with a decidedly bittersweet expression.

* * *

As was tradition, the Fire Lord's closest family (not that there was any present at the moment) and friends were offered seats on somewhat softer padded at the mahogany map table, which had been hastily covered with a silk tablecloth. Surrounding this table were dozens of smaller tables spilling out into the courtyard.

At a sound of a bell, hundreds of servants streamed in with unfathomable arrays of food. Meats cooked a thousand different ways and vegetables sliced in a thousand different fashions entered the room piled high on colorful platters. Fragrant first-of-the-harvest teas of a dozen different flavors filled porcelain pots and were poured forth into generously sized cups. For those so desiring, wines of rice, grapes, plum, peach and a hundred other fruits poured freely into fanciful goblets.

At the head of the largest table sat Zuko, with the rest of his friends arranged closely around him. Sokka, rather unexpectedly, didn't dig into it right away; instead, he examined the variety of options available and picked and chose carefully. While the rest of the table more or less ate what was closer to them and looked appetizing, Aang avoided the dishes with meat in them, and drank only tea. Despite this, however, there was still much too much to choose from.

"Careful with the wine," Hakoda chided his children.

"Ah, let them be," his friend Bato suggested. "This is a happy occasion."

The Chief smiled and turned back to his table. "Let's see which one of us can stomach more of the happiness," he said with a sly grin as he handed a cup of wine to his friend.

* * *

"So, have you heard anything from your Uncle?" Katara asked, wiping the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

"No, not yet." Zuko replied. His eyes lit up with a particular memory of the man as he continued. "I don't doubt he succeeded."

"Plus, he has help from other members of the White Lotus," Sokka added. "What do you think Aang?"

The Avatar looked up from his bowl of napa cabbage and shrugged. "I guess. But we should go to Ba Sing Se soon to make sure things there are all taken care of. It's a big city."

Zuko nodded and made a quick motion with his hand, summoning a servant to his side. "Make preparations for me to travel to Ba Sing Se, by this night."

Almost immediately, he looked up at his friends with a questioning look. "Is that fine for you guys?"

Everyone nodded quickly, and Zuko turned back to talk to the servant. But out of the corner of his eye he noticed Aang getting up with a queasy expression and an uneven gait.

"Aang, what's wrong?"

"I'm just a little tired," he muttered. "And maybe a little dizzy- I think I just need some fresh air."

"Do you need a doctor?" Zuko replied, looking around frantically for a doctor. "Or anything else?"

"No- this isn't something a doctor can fix. I'll see you all later," he said, adding the latter part almost as an afterthought. Then he walked slowly out the front entrance, taking a sharp right almost immediately and disappearing amongst the buildings.

Everyone, Zuko most of all, frowned with worry and were unable to hide the unease in their hearts, but there was nothing they could do.

After a moment of lip-biting, Katara got up and quickly traced Aang's footsteps outside, but she was only able to catch a fleeting glimpse of him, a black dot in the sky with a glider that blended in all too well with his surroundings.

Returning inside, she shook her head and sat down to eat, but found that she had lost her appetite.

* * *

Eerily, Aang returned right when the Gaang was making its final preparations to leave.

"Where were you?" Sokka asked. "Katara went to find you, but you were already gone. Why'd you leave so fast?"

"Oh. Sorry." he replied, looking somewhat remorseful. The effect was dampened, however, by the distant look in his eyes. "I'll stay closer next time."

"Well, alright. Just remember we're your friends- we're here to help you." Sokka patted Aang on the back, but when he failed to elicit an enthusiastic response he sighed and turned Aang's head towards him slowly, trying to gain eye contact. Aang's grey eyes sharpened as he gazed into the blue eyes that seemed so familiar, which reminded him of someone - and he flinched.

"Ok." he said, pushing Sokka away gently.

When he turned around, however, he came face-to-face with Katara, and he jumped back a full foot.

"Aang, what's wrong?"

Aang turned his face away sharply, dropping his voice to a lower tone. "Nothing. I'm just nervous, that's all. I don't want to wait too long to get to Ba Sing Se." He backed away from her and pulled out his bison whistle.

"Come on, you can tell me," Katara insisted.

"No I can't. Thanks for the offer though," he replied rather gruffly.

"Well...alright." she finally acquiesced. "But-"

"I know. Maybe later."

Aang finally gave her a look, but one that did nothing to reassure her, before jumping atop Appa.

By this time, the rest of the Gaang had come out of their shared guesthouse and gathered around beneath Appa.

"Why don't you ride with the rest of us?" Sokka asked. "Won't you get tired?"

"I'll be fine."

"But-"

Toph cut in suddenly. "He needs this. He can come on later if he wants too," she added. "C'mon, let's go."

"Wait," Zuko interrupted. "I should..."

His mind was centered on Mai and Ty Lee, who he had also intended to bring along, but now he realized that he hadn't seen either of them the entire day - in fact, not since the afternoon of the previous day - so he held back.

"...Nevermind. Let's go."

While the rest of the Gaang boarded the waiting airship, he scribbled a quick letter to Mai, leaving it to a servant to deliver it.

With one forlorn backwards, he boarded the airship and ordered it to fly towards Ba Sing Se at full speed.

* * *

"What brings you here today?"

"Nothing much," Mai replied drily. "One cup of sake please."

"How about you?" The bartender gave the somewhat gloomy acrobat seated next to Mai a pointed look.

"The same." Ty Lee murmured. "And maybe get us some of those seaweed crackers."

With a curt nod, the woman straightened and disappeared behind the counter.

Ty Lee ducked her head, and with a small gesture she motioned for Mai to do the same.

"Is your dad alright?"

"He's fine for now. My parents are moving out to the countryside though - they think the volcano's fumes might not be that good for his health, especially with his heart condition."

"Are you going with them?"

Mai's eyes narrowed slightly as she took a quick glance around her.

"No. We agreed that I would stay in the capital. For now."

"What do you mean, for now?"

"I-"

"Here you go, ladies," a server laid down the glasses with a neat motion. With a understated flourish, she poured sake into their wine glasses and produced a metal tray stacked high with salty seaweed crackers.

"Thank you," they said in unison. As soon as the server left Mai whirled back around and fixed Ty Lee with a look that said something, but which Ty Lee, rather unusually, couldn't decipher.

"I don't know," Mai finished.

Ty Lee frowned as she looked down into her glass, but she didn't say anything for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows and taking a hearty sip of the alcoholic beverage.

"Well...when will you know?"

"Soon."

Once again, Mai fixed her with _that _look, but before Ty Lee could ask any questions a third patron appeared in their midst.

"I didn't think you would come here so soon."

* * *

The airship vibrated incessantly, _continuously_, as it flew through the air at the very limit of its technical specifications. Outside of the riveted, metal-framed windows, the ocean below took on a darker hue, becoming a murky, nearly opaque shade of indigo as the sun set on the distant western horizon.

Flying several dozen feet to the side, Appa groaned loudly, but his rumbling faded into the wind as quick as it had come. Aang straddled his neck, leaning lopsidedly to the right, nodding off in his dazed semi-consciousness.

Sokka made his way around to the back of the airship carriage from the bridge, where he found Katara leaning on the door, looking apprehensively out at Aang and Appa's moonlit silhouettes, partially obscured by silvery-gray clouds.

"I wish I could do something," she began.

"You still can. It's not too late." Sokka suggested. "I know it's not easy for you, but really, think about it. Maybe the two of you need some-"

"Sokka, I'm not going to pretend just for his sake. He deserves more than that." She paused and swallowed thickly. "You know that."

"Well-"

Katara interrupted him, an upwelling of pent-up emotion evident in her speech. "I love him- I love him more than anything else in the world, but not in a _romantic _way! He-he's just..."

Sokka tried to pry apart the look on her face while he waited for her to continue.

"-He deserves someone better. And I don't feel that way," she reminded him.

"Well, don't expect him to stick around if-"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, sure, we'll stay 'friends' - but he needs his time, and he needs to focus. He's going to take the first chance he can get to get away from you, and since you're always with us, that includes the rest of us. I don't like it, but-"

"What, so it's my fault?"

He eyed her carefully, gauging her possible reaction. _Ah, hell with it. _

He took a deep breath.

"Yes. You could've let him know in a slower way-"

"Well, he sort of pushed me! There was nothing I could do!"

"He ran away. You chased after him."

"He found out- about what happened between Zuko-"

Katara noticed a grimace crossing her brother's face at the insinuation, but pressed on regardless.

"-so I had to come clean."

"What, so being honest is now a inconvenience? Katara!" he exclaimed. "Just be honest with yourself and to him."

"I am," she said in an exasperated tone. "But I feel like...there's something more that I could do."

"But would it be being honest to yourself?"

"No." _Well..._ "Actually, I'm not sure." she quickly corrected herself.

Sokka was quickly becoming irritated once more. "You've never been sure. First it was _Jet-" _

"Huh?" asked a gravelly voice.

_Oh no..._

"How do you guys know Jet?" Zuko asked in a unassuming tone.

"Um..." Katara trailed off.

"Didn't we watch _The Ember Island Players _together? I know for a fact _some _parts of it were accurate." Sokka explained, partly being sarcastic and partly expousng some biting criticism. "But you can ask Katara."

"Uhm..no, I'm fine. I was just taking a walk."

As quickly as he had come, Zuko disappeared back into the shadows, with a new doubt lurking on his mind.

When his loud and rather rapid footsteps faded away and the echo of a lock rolled through the hallway, Katara turned on her brother.

"_What _is your problem?"

"I was just being honest. Don't want your _third _crush to end up like the last two." he retorted.

Katara glared at her brother, uncorking her water pouch in preparation for a and rhetorical tongue-lashing. But as she readied her whip, Sokka leapt to the side and raised his arm to point outside.

"Look!"

* * *

"What do you mean?" Mai asked, managing to keep her tone at an even keel.

"I know that you know that everyone else knows what happened between you and Zuko. It's all everyone has been talking about all day."

"It's none of your business," Mai bit out. "Besides, someone else has already replaced me-"

"-the Water Tribe woman, we know. And I'm sure you know as well as I do that this changes everything."

"Hm?"

"Your father is rumored to be 'involved' as well."

"Mai, what is she saying?" Ty Lee interjected.

With a calculating gaze - and a dangerous glint - Mai turned towards the now seated woman. "Him? He can barely walk."

"You know he has connections."

"I do?"

"We all know where this is going, Mai. Do you want in or not?"

This time, she didn't even hesitate. "I'm all ears."

* * *

"Aang!"

It seemed all too familiar- the Avatar, _Aang_, tumbling towards the inky black water, which seemed to froth too and fro in anticipation of his arrival.

She stood frozen in place even as a commotion arose around her, and yelling, _shouting_ filled the air.

_No no no- _

And then Appa circled around to fly up at a sharp angle, and Aang tumbled into the saddle.

She breathed a sigh of relief, but as soon as she exhaled it turned to disbelief and then anger as she made her way onto the top and poked her head from the top of the airship.

"What are you doing? You could've died! Are you-"

"Are you alright?" Sokka finished, forcing his way outside and grabbing ahold of the steering rudder.

"Yeah," came Aang's faraway voice.

"Why are you even flying by yourself?" Katara asked in a accusatory tone.

There was a long moment of silence, and suddenly Sokka realized what Aang was about to say judging by the grave look on the young Avatar's face, so he added quickly, "We're worried about you. Please, come in for our sakes."

"I'm fine," Aang replied, but in a tone that wasn't insistent and largely lethargic.

"It's a long way to Ba Sing Se. Appa can't keep catching you the whole way."

"I can sleep in the saddle."

"Aang-" Sokka's exasperation was bleeding through, as it had been only moments ago that he was arguing with his sister "-just come in. We need you."

There was a shorter but still noticeable moment of hesitation before Aang took hold of his glider and landed on the airship bottom railing.

By this time, the rest of the Gaang had also clambered onto the top only to watch Aang disappear beneath the underbelly of the ship.

* * *

_I hate this. It's not fair to them - it's not fair to me, either - but I just need to get away from her._

_**Don't be so quick to give up on her. Don't you still- **_

_Yes. But I need to learn...to let go of her. This is only eating me from the inside, and she's made her choice..._

Aang fell asleep in the full lotus position, legs stiff from being crossed all night. Despite the apprehension of all his friends at his clearly disturbed countenance, they could do naught.

The moon rose on the restless night, not quite filled with the terrors of legend but which nevertheless concealing, for the moment, a smothering feeling of helplessness.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Have a nice day.

Seriously though, I will post review responses later. Right now I need to get this up ASAP.

Note: 萬歲 - Literally "Age (of) Ten Thousand" was an epithet used to address the emperor in both Imperial China and Japan, used to wish the sovereign a long life.

Here are the much-anticipated and highly sought-after review responses:

SuperNova: Thanks, I appreciate that my readers are understanding in the light of my infrequent updates.

Malevolent Dark Reflection: The dream is a foreshadow, I guess. In what way, I'm not yet sure, but it wasn't that subtle either, so...well read on. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

70oda: Well, in many of my dreams I imagine that I'm falling into a black pit or a hole, and the sensation of vertigo makes me instinctively kick my feet, which then wakes me up. Brrrr...dreams can be creepy as well, but hopefully you don't have that (unless you like creepy dreams?) Anyways, hopefully you enjoy this chapter as well.


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